News broke yesterday that Google is rolling out a new product called Google Wallet. For starters, this should come as no surprise to anyone that this technology would be in the works. And second of all, it should come as no surprise to anyone that Google would be heavily involved in creating the ‘digital wallet’.
I think more than any other company, Google is extremely well positioned to be able to create a wallet that lives on your phone. Here is why:
- They own your email account. But don’t worry, this only affects you small minority of G-mail users…. wait, what?
- They own your phones. Well, at least for anyone who is buying into this new Android platform (which is apparently a lot). I have seen this shift also with clients, how a even a year ago, there was hardly any analytics data for Android, and now the pie is made up with Android as one of the largest pieces(see: Nielson ratings too)
- They own the mobile web. Currently, Google has no major competitor in the mobile market (Info graphic demonstrates this nicely).
Honestly, I think Google is in a prime position to dominate yet another market, which is terrific for them. And honestly, even though there are haters out there, I welcome it with open arms. The technology they have been bringing to the world has made my life significantly easier. Between sharing calendars with my wife, syncing my computer with my phone, accessing important information on the go with Google docs, etc.
And yes, they have lots of giant FAILS (looking at you Google Wave) but at least they are still willing to try new things (looking at you Google Music) which ultimately adds a lot to the mobile experience.
There is always the pressing question, Google, why do you insist on reusing logo’s of FAIL’ed projects!
- “Google Wallet lets you wave your phone for payment. Is that why the logo looks like Google Wave?” – via VidiSEO
.
Anyway, the only one at this point I see as a real competitor to Google for the digital wallet would be the allegiance between Bing and Facebook. I will say it now that if anyone will make this a real fight, it will be ‘FaceBing’ (dont know if anyone has said that before, but if it sticks, please link it back to me). They practically have all the workings in place to make it a reality, as well as the the worlds largest social network.
Lets see how this all pans out.
More info on the Digital wallet over at engadget