Google Wallet & Google Offers Now Official as NFC Becomes an Important Mobile Standard [Google Announces NFC-based Wallet & Offers Services, Will You Trust It With Your Money Too?]

Posted on TFTS by Chris Smith on Thursday, 26. May 2011 under: Mobile/Cell Phones

We told you this was coming since yesterday and it looks like Google delivered. I’m yet to figure out why this announcement didn’t come at Google I/O, as one would have expected since Google’s event just ended a few weeks ago. Because it really looks as if Google hurried to have this NFC announcement out in the open a few days ahead of WWDC 2011 where Apple could talk NFC plans too for its iOS 5 mobile operating system.

But leaving mind games between giants aside, we do have two new products from Google for you today. These are Google Wallet and Google Offers, and those of you already thrilled about turning your smartphone into an eWallet should definitely appreciate the new services.

Google wants to handle your money for you, when it comes to various transactions, and the Android smartphone seem to be the way to do it. Sure it needs NFC support in order to actually make it happen, but most of the current handsets out there will be able to offer support for Wallet and Offers soon. As for the other platforms, well iOS and WP7 NFC payment systems are probably just around the corner too.

But it’s not enough turning your smartphone into a smart paying system if there aren’t shops to use it in. Google announced that 120,000 merchants in the USA are ready for Google Wallet, so it’ll be just a matter of time before more and more people and stores start using it.

Google Wallet will be officially tested this summer with companies like Sprint, MasterCard, Citi or First Data being among the most important Google partners in this NFC venture.

So how does Google Wallet work? Well we’re basically looking at an Android app that will be available on your Android smartphone. Inside it you’ll be able to configure your credit cards as Google Wallet will work with most of them in the future (although the first kind of supported cards will be the Citi MasterCard ones.) Your card will be safely guarded by screen locks, and pins, not to mention it will not really show the full credit card number. Besides the phone, Google Wallet will require points-of-sales installed in various shops, and these PayPass systems will be available in San Francisco and New York at first with companies like Subway, Macy, American Eagle, Radio Shack, Walgreens or Toys R Us being among the first ready to help Google make the new NFC payment system popular.

What about Google Offers? I’m not particularly interested in getting my email filled with new sales offers every day, although some of them could come in handy. It’s a new kind of Groupon-like savings idea that will apparently send you various offers on a regular basis which you’ll be able to redeem right on the phone if interested in any of them.

Of course the first handset to secure your Wallet and Offers needs will be the Google Nexus S, which already comes with NFC support, but according to the press event, Samsung, HTC and Motorola will make more NFC-ready handsets for Sprint later this year. Google even suggested that Google Wallet and Offers could work with current handsets as long as a NFC-sticker would be placed somewhere on them, although we can’t exactly tell you when Google would launch them.

So, anyone particularly interested in these Google Wallet and Google Offers offers? What will you choose between paper, plastic, or NFC?