Google Wallet set to premiere in UK early in 2012

Google Wallet – a latest near field communication (NFC) based payment system innovation from the American giants of the Internet – launched in the United States earlier this year to generally favourable reviews.

But according to France’s Les Echos daily newspaper, the UK is next in line, with Google Wallet set to launch throughout our green and pleasant land in the first half of 2012. Rumours abound that retailers, distributors and banks are working to have the system in place any time between January and March, which would effectively see Google Wallet in operation across the UK prior to the commencement of the much-anticipated – and lucrative - London 2012 Olympic Games.

Google Wallet is a contactless payment system that operates via a smartphone, storing credit cards, loyalty cards, sales vouchers and promotions on the phone and enabling payment via a PayPass-enabled terminal at MasterCard PayPass merchant checkout locations. The smartphone is held up to the terminal’s receiver to make the transaction, similar to contactless technology employed with the London transport system’s Oyster Card, and Barclaycard’s contactless payment method. Google Wallet does, however, require a PIN and extra security features to prevent fraud and misuse of the system.

Currently in the US, the Google app is only enabled on the Nexus S 4G, but according to reports from The Huffington Post in May of this year, plans were already in motion to roll out the app across a number of mobile devices.

In the UK, although support for the technology is somewhat lacking, NFC-enabled smartphones are beginning to get a hold in the marketplace, with Blackberry, Nokia and Samsung handsets all including NFC capabilities (Samsung’s Nexus S model has had the technology in place for almost a year).  Microsoft has informed technology website TechRadar that Windows Phone 7.5 already supports NFC technology, but as yet “… none of the Windows Phone manufacturers have yet seen fit to enable it.”

It has also been rumoured that Apple’s long-awaited iPhone5 will also NFC-supporting technology, although a release date for the model has yet to be announced.