Google has released its mobile payment app for smartphones, ‘Wallet’.
The search engine company had announced Google Wallet in May. The company had said that the app makes "your phone your wallet — with Citi, MasterCard, Sprint and First Data."
Google Wallet will available on Sprint Nexus 4G phones. The new product, working on near field communication (NFC), comes to the market after extensive testing, said the company wile announcing the tool on a blog.
The company said, "That means we’re beginning to roll out Google Wallet to all Sprint Nexus S 4G phones through an over-the-air update — just look for the ‘Wallet’ app."
The company is also offering $10 free bonus to its own prepaid card to encourage smartphone owners to use it.
The company said, "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. 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 search engine company announced its foray into digital payments in May. The digital payment service will allow users to make purchases by waving their phones at special readers installed at stores. The service will offer loyalty points to customers and keep track of their spending.
The company hopes that the service will help bridge the gap between online and offline commerce.
Google had said in its official blog, the Wallet is "aimed at making it easier for you to pay for and save on the goods you want, while giving merchants more ways to offer coupons and loyalty programs to customers, as well as bridging the gap between online and offline commerce."
Initially, the service will only support a Citi Mastercard and a Google prepaid card, but is expected to expand to other merchants.
Google said, "We appreciate Citi and MasterCard for being our launch partners. And today, Visa, Discover and American Express have made available their NFC specifications that could enable their cards to be added to future versions of Google Wallet."
Google has also said that the company aims 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."
"This is still just the beginning, and while we’re excited about this first step, we look forward to bringing Google Wallet to more phones in the future," added Google.
In May Sprint entered into a partnership agreement with Google to launch Google Wallet, becoming the first carrier and Nexus S 4G the first phone to deliver the service.
