Mobile Wallet Race in US and Canada
Google Wallet has been getting a lot buzz in the media as a form of mobile payment. Introduced earlier this year, the Google Wallet mobile app makes your phone your wallet. It securely stores your credit cards, loyalty cards, and offers on your mobile phone. When you check out at brick-and-mortar stores that accept Google Wallet, you can pay and redeem offers quickly just by tapping your phone at the point of sale. They have already signed up more than 25+ major retailers in the US – including Best Buy, Target, Gap, Guess, and Sunoco.
While Google has gotten a lot of attention in the media around their wallet offering – there are other groups including VISA (including V.Me) and American Express who are developing their own wallet. Google has already launched pilots in Chicago and San Francisco. The first pilot to launch in Canada will be in early 2012. RIM and Telefonica has just launched a pilot of a version of the digital wallet in Spain.
Paypal’s unique entry combines NFC and non-NFC devices – they are selling the idea to retailers that to update their POSes requires a software upgrade rather than a hardware upgrade with NFC. In the instance of the non-NFC solution, one would use their mobile number and PIN for payment from their mobile wallet.
