

Launching Google Wallet on Sprint and working with Visa, AmEx and Discover - fanfantm
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/launching-google-wallet-on-sprint-and.html

======
dendory
This could, and should be the future. Will it be? Probably not for a while,
mostly because Visa and AMEX will launch their own competitive products.
Stores will be forced to make a choice as to which system they support. Google
will scream for everyone to adopt their "open" system while everyone else will
complain about Google wanting to be a monopoly in this new field. The feds
will intervene and we'll see years of lawsuits. And, eventually, we'll end up
with the ideal system, where everyone will support a standard-based open
wallet system and every store will have something that supports that.. in
10-20 years.

~~~
patrickaljord
The article says that they're in talks with Visa. Also, Google does not take a
cut when you use your Mastercard, it's just like a regular wallet, not paypal.
So really Visa and AMEX shouldn't have to reject it.

~~~
TREYisRAD
Visa made a blog post confirming support:

[http://blog.visa.com/2011/09/19/google-licenses-
visa%E2%80%9...](http://blog.visa.com/2011/09/19/google-licenses-
visa%E2%80%99s-paywave-technology/)

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ddw
Are traditional wallets really a problem? What exactly is the problem that is
being solved here?

~~~
mhansen
For me, pocket room and security. I used to have to carry around a phone,keys,
CD player, wallet, and camera.

Now the camera and ipod are integrated into the phone, and I'm just carrying
my phone, keys, and wallet. I really appreciate the extra pocket space, and
I'd love to fold the wallet into the phone and get some more.

The extra security of having a PIN on your wallet is just a bonus.

~~~
pavel_lishin
Not to mention, the possibility of wiping your phone remotely with a single
action, instead of trying to remember which cards were in your wallet and
calling each one separately.

~~~
angryasian
this is an awesome point I didn't even consider. I use AndroidLost and am able
to remote wipe my phone at anytime from a browser. Now that I think about it,
I would much rather be able to use my phone for payments with this ability,
than to carry a physical card and risk losing it or leaving it somewhere. Yes
I make backups of my phone using custom recovery ( clockworkMod Recovery).

~~~
ma2rten
You know you have your credit card blocked with one phone call, right? And
that those not relay on it being on and having internet connection.

~~~
angryasian
why even bother thats the point. With a regular credit card, you'll have to
request a new card and number, wait for it in the mail, and now change all
your accounts that are associated with it. With my phone, remotely wipe my sd
card / lock out my phone. Track it down, and restore. Much easier. I have
missplaced my credit card before, and the loss of my phone is more noticeable
and quicker in general than my credit card that I didn't realize was missing
till the next time I went to use it.

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dannyr
Anybody knows why it only works on the Sprint Nexus S but not the one on
TMobile?

~~~
CrazedGeek
Sprint and Google have been very friendly recently[1], so it could just be an
exclusivity thing.

What I'm more curious about is why none of Sprint's other, more recent Android
phones have NFC in them- I just picked up a Photon yesterday sans NFC, and I'm
led to believe that the EVO 3D and the Epic 4G Touch don't have it either.
(Which is particularly weird for the E4GT, because the other Galaxy S II
variants in the US actually have NFC in them. Who knows.)

[1] See the tight Google Voice/Sprint integration, the existence of the Nexus
S 4G, etc.

~~~
mpclark
It's pricey and often complicated to incorporate NFC at this stage. The phones
that have it so far are more like experimental/reference platforms than
anything else. When NFC is available on combo chips it will be everywhere, and
manufacturers are just starting to commit properly now - Samsung and Acer have
indicated all their future smartphones will have NFC within the last few days,
BlackBerry is going the same way, and dear old Nokia could be too. Basically,
it is still early days...

~~~
Geee
Well Nokia has definitely committed to NFC early on. All their recent
smartphones have NFC, and all future models will have it. There's the device
list:
[http://www.developer.nokia.com/Devices/Device_specifications...](http://www.developer.nokia.com/Devices/Device_specifications/?filter1=all&filter2=nfc)

Also their recent accessories support bluetooth pairing with NFC, with single
tap.

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toddh
Does google get a copy of your purchase data?

~~~
HardyLeung
I think so. According to <http://www.google.com/wallet/privacy.html>

_Transaction information - When you use Google Wallet to conduct a
transaction, information regarding the transaction may be stored in the Google
Wallet Application. We may collect information about these transactions from
the Google Wallet Application. We also collect transaction data from your use
of the Google Wallet Service. For example, if you use the Google Wallet
Application to make a purchase at a merchant or download a merchant coupon, we
may obtain information regarding that transaction from the Wallet Application,
from the merchant and/or a partner, as applicable. The information may include
the date and time of the purchase, the store location, the amount of the
purchase, and the offer associated with the transaction.

Information about your use of Google Wallet - We may collect information about
your interaction with the Google Wallet Service and the Google Wallet
Application. This may include, for example, data on number of offers saved,
payment attempts, and provisioning activity. Using added services may require
your opt-in consent for Google Wallet to offer the functionality. For example,
you may be offered the opportunity to opt-in to a service whereby Wallet would
present offers to you based on your transaction activity through Wallet._

~~~
magicalist
"Our goal is to make it possible for you to add all of your payment cards to
Google Wallet, so you can say goodbye to even the biggest traditional wallets"

It sounds like they're aiming to be closer to a paypal (or a, ahem, google
checkout...) than just an OS hook for other credit card/payment apps.

disclaimer: my knowledge is limited to the content in the linked blog post and
yesterday's threads :)

------
paganel
Nothing of value to add, just noticing that that taxi customer just paid with
his Google wallet and left no tip. How is that even possible? And second, I
think Google should have learned better after the Google+ soon-to-become-
fiasco that using geeks and other people like us to market their products
isn't that much of an appealing offer to "normal"-looking potential
clients/customers.

~~~
bobbles
It's entirely possible to pay a tip using a card. How would this be any
different?

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alexeckermann
No mention of an International roadmap or trialing in any other country but
the US, or on any other device or network for that matter. This has started to
annoy me about Google product releases, as I am Australian. Are they releasing
too early? Trying to generate hype and be called the first to do something?
Why wont they work on things for another 6 months to get it right?

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fatbat
In the intro video, the guy did not tip the cab driver! He would have taken
longer otherwise...

~~~
abraham
He could have tipped during the cut away.

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LeafStorm
> Our goal is to make it possible for you to add all of your payment cards to
> Google Wallet, so you can say goodbye to even the biggest traditional
> wallets.

Most of the cards in my wallet are IDs and discount cards (driver's license,
student ID, a couple of grocery stores, gas, bus, train, AAA...). Even if they
add support for all payment cards known to man, that would only take two cards
out of my wallet. It's a great idea, but it's definitely not "replacing"
traditional wallets anytime soon.

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mog_man
hmmm..

Wouldn't it be better if there is mobile payment between phones? I would love
to pay my friends by tapping with their phones.

~~~
kul
I think you can do this with Paypal's app + Bump. Of course, I'm not sure if
you'd want to pay people using Paypal. This is one direction we've been
thinking of (www.tagstand.com).

