NEW YORK - More on the mobile wallet: The Wall Street Journal writes that Google is teaming up with MasterCard and Citigroup to embed technology in Android mobile devices that allow consumers to make purchases by waving their smartphones in front of a reader at the checkout.
Google??s plan is to also boost its advertising business; the payment system would allow Google to offer retailers customer data and targeted ads to smartphone users near their stores.
The Google-backed system is expected to hit the market later this year. The newspaper also notes that Google is not expected to "get a cut" of the transaction fees.
The project is in its early stages and would allow customers of Citigroup-issued debit and credit cards to pay for purchases "by activating a mobile-payment application developed for one current model and many coming models of Android phones. The idea is to turn the phones into a kind of electronic wallet," writes the newspaper.
Users would receive targeted ads or discount offers, which Google hopes to sell to local merchants, as well as manage their credit card accounts and track spending from a smartphone application.
The venture also involves VeriFone, which would roll out more contactless payments devices that allow customers to make purchases by tapping their smartphones.
Consumer financial risk, meanwhile, is being addressed.
"Because it's contactless there's a perception people can grab it from thin air, but it's actually a more sophisticated technology than credit cards with a magnetic stripe, making it more difficult to steal a consumer's payment information," said Nick Holland, mobile-transactions analyst at Yankee Group.
"A phone is a lot smarter than a card," Doug Bergeron, CEO of VeriFone, told the Journal, adding, "It opens the door to a rich experience at the point of sale that retailers really covet." He noted that he also expects Apple to embed NFC technology in future iPhones. BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. has said its future phones would support NFC.
To learn more about the future of mobile payments, register today to attend NACStech, May 16 to 18 in Las Vegas. NACStech ?" the industry??s top technology solutions event ?" features a workshop dedicated to this topic.