14 DAY TRIAL // Google Wallet, a service and application that was announced in the United States back in May, is now available for users of a Nexus S 4G handset on Sprint's network.
With the new application, users will be able to transform their handsets into wallets, so that they can easily tap, pay and save using their devices and the near field communication (NFC) capabilities included in it.
The Google Wallet application was designed to work with Citi, MasterCard, Sprint and First Data, and will be pushed to all Sprint Nexus S 4G phones via a software update, Osama Bedier, vice president of Payments, Google, notes in a blog post.
This is the first version of the application, which lands on Sprint's phones after a long period of testing, yet future releases are expected to add support for more devices.
“Google Wallet enables you to pay with your Citi MasterCard credit card and the Google Prepaid Card, which can be funded with any of your existing plastic credit cards,” Osama Bedier explains.
“As a thanks to early adopters, we’re adding a $10 free bonus to the Google Prepaid Card if you set it up in Google Wallet before the end of the year.”
The launch of Google Wallet is meant to show the company's commitment to an open commerce ecosystem, he also notes.
While only Citi and MasterCard are supporting the application for the time being, future versions of Google Wallet should bring along support for cards from Visa, Discover and American Express, all three of which have just published their NFC specifications.
“Our goal is to make it possible for you to add all of your payment cards to Google Wallet, so you can say goodbye to even the biggest traditional wallets,” Bedier continues.
As stated above, this marks but only the first step in Google's quest to enable users replace their “over-stuffed” wallets with a simple application. Soon, the application will arrive on more handsets, so that even more users will be able to enjoy its features. More on Google Wallet is available at google.com/wallet.