In essence, any card or digital payment source you enter into Google Wallet could be used when you pay with this physical card, the Google Wallet Card. This means that Google Wallet would suddenly be usable in any store that accepts credit cards which in the U.S. is nearly all of them.
It also means that the Google Wallet app wouldn't have to be tied to phones that have NFC; while you couldn't tap to pay without NFC, as long as you can manage your accounts from the app you would be good to go. Even for those with NFC-packing handsets the physical card could be a handy backup in case your phone's battery died, or in case your device was lost or stolen. Likewise if the card was lost or stolen it could be shut down right from your phone (or a computer) without having to contact a major credit card company.
The shift beyond NFC to a physical card would also deprive Verizon from its excuse to keep Wallet off of its phones due to NFC-based security concerns. Moving beyond Verizon Android users, it would mean that Google Wallet apps could be released for iOS and Windows Phone 8 as it wouldn't be tied to needing NFC to work. And while international availability isn't known at this point, it would seem like this sort of system could be rolled out essentially anywhere that an app like Paypal is legal.
(source)
0 comments:
