In the next few months, Google will begin testing a mobile-payment service at stores in New York and San Francisco that will let shoppers pay for purchases using their (Android) phones, Bloomberg reports, citing anonymous sources.
Google will reportedly pick up the tab to have custom cash register systems from VeriFone Systems installed at select merchants. A customer could then pay registers by tapping a mobile phones equipped with a near-field communication (NFC) chip.
The Internet mogul may have a distinct advantage in the marketplace. While any mobile-payment service faces stiff competition from PayPal and ISIS, a system backed by AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, Google could leverage its access to customer information to enhance its service, bundling financial account information, merchant loyalty cards, coupons, and gift-card balances onto a single NFC chip supported by its Android operating system, Bloomberg said.
Google said it does not comment on rumor or speculation.
An In-Stat report released today suggests that mobile payments will be the next frontier in mobile tech. Despite the technology's success in some countries, mobile payments have yet to breakout on a global scale. In-Stat suggests that the technology will begin to find its stride this year, predicting that the number of mobile-payment users will triple in the next few years, from 116 million today to over 375 million in 2015.
For 2011, adoption of mobile-payment relies upon the availability of phones with NFC chipsets. Nokia and RIM have vowed to bring NFC- enabled phones to market, and Samsung's Nexus S phone already permits NFC transactions. Apple iOS users, on the other hand, might have to wait a little bit longer, the upcoming iPhone 5 will reportedly not have an NFC chipset.