Google has opted to give customers $10 if they use Google Wallet to experience paying everyday vendors with one's smartphone. Due to lackluster adoption rates, Google is ramping up its Hamiltonian promotion for its mobile payment service at select stores across five major US cities and at participating merchants such as Walgreens, Jamba Juice, Footlocker, and Peet's Coffee & Tea.
Do you live in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, or Washington, D.C.? Between now and January 12, Google, Sprint, and Samsung representatives will hold demos at the aforementioned franchises (and other locations to be determined) to demonstrate Google Wallet on Samsung Nexus S demo phones.
'We're excited to give you a chance to try out Google Wallet and experience paying with a mobile phone,' said Google in their official blog.
Google's limited release of Google Wallet on Samsung Nexus S phones using the Sprint network has resulted in less than ideal adoption rates for the corporation. Google Wallet terminals are only available at a limited number of Google-partnered merchants in an even more limited number of cities-- another reason why people most likely haven't even seen the service in action.
Mobiledia reports on a few more downsides to Google Wallet. 'Wallet is also limited in that it supports just two payment methods, Citi MasterCard and Google pre-paid cards. Rival mobile payment companies Square and PayPal, which don't use NFC technology in their systems, allow all major credit cards, putting Wallet at a possible disadvantage. But the search giant reported licensing Visa's PayWave, which would let Wallet work at thousands of payment terminals already equipped with Visa technology. Google also says it has plans to bring Visa, Discover and American Express on board in the future.'
By having live demos coupled with the rise of NFC-equipped phones released in the near future, Google may find more potential customers as their demos commence throughout the holiday season. In addition to this, Google's partnerships with more and more established services will help to spread adoption of Google Wallet and other NFC services.
The NFC Forum, an industry group for the promotion of NFC technologies, has recently gained support from Isis, a coalition of credit card companies, carriers, and smartphone manufacturers. With more major corporations within the industry promoting mobile payments, it is still to early to tell the future of Google Wallet. Standardization of NFC technology by these groups may result in adoption of NFC-enabled payment terminals at more and more vendors.
