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Google Wallet Goes Plastic. What Now For Mobile Payments?

Written by Frank Hayes
November 8th, 2012

In another blow to mobile wallets’ credibility, word leaked out last Thursday (Nov. 1) that Google will soon copy PayPal by introducing a plastic Google Wallet Card—complete with the magstripe that Google Wallet’s NFC hasn’t been able to displace. (This may be what Google was planning to announce last month but didn’t.) Google will be pitching the plastic for times “when you can’t tap and pay,” and any coupons or loyalty cards in a user’s Google Wallet will be automatically applied.

But we have to ask—why? Sure, we understand that Google seriously misunderstood either how hard mobile payments would be, how much its competitors hate it or how unwilling consumers are to use anything but plastic. If this is really Google throwing in the towel on NFC-based mobile payments, we have to wonder what else Google isn’t going to follow through on for Google Wallet retailers. After all, Google will still be tapping the transaction stream for CRM data, even at places that haven’t signed on. Is the search giant going to act like a partner after all this? This move may be just what Google Wallet needs. But chains? Not so much.

Posted in CRM, In-Store, IT Strategy/Industry, Mobile/Wireless/Contactless, Payment Systems
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One Comment | Read Google Wallet Goes Plastic. What Now For Mobile Payments?

  1. ed Says:
    November 9th, 2012 at 12:17 pm

    Google using plastic to augment their gWallet service may be the most realistic m-commerce implementation to date. I do not think Google Wallet using physical cards takes mobile payments back, I believe it create a forward facing bridge to phase current card users towards mobile payments.

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