Services

Google Fuels Gphone Speculations with Mobile Payment Patent

Next stop: the Gphone

By Elena Balan, Communications News Editor

5th of September 2007, 08:02 GMT

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Google's interest for mobile phones has been reaffirmed with a new patent that the company has developed for mobile payment. This gives no hints on the future release of the speculated Gphone, but shows the company's decision of investing

in this field.

Google has applied for a patent for a mobile payments service that will allow users to make payments at retail shops using their handsets. The system is called "Gpay" and uses text messages for payment authenticate, debit the purchaser's account and credit the seller's account.

In other words, the service sends an SMS message to Google for paying the retailer and then charges the cost to the consumer. The concept is described as "a computer-implemented method of effectuating an electronic on-line payment". Similar mobile-payment services already exist, which makes Google's concept highly similar to the mobile version of PayPal.

Whether the patent will actually be used on handsets everywhere or not depends on just how profitable it can be. The existing such services have proved far from being a success, as customers have yet to grow accustomed to use.

Google already has an online payment system called Google Checkout, launched a year ago. In spring, it released the mobile version of this service, although it has the disadvantage of working only for online purchases. Moving on to GPay can also be considered as making a huge step from PC to the mobile environment.

The patent was filed at the beginning of the year, in February, but has been made public only now. Strong companies usually file a large number of patents, but only some of them are actually released on the market later on. It is the same case with the GPay idea, although it would make good pair with a Gphone release. The company is still keeping a low ground on this possibility, revealing nothing but its sheer interest in the concept.

TAGS:

Google | Gphone | Mobile Payment | Patent | Gpay

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