Google has acquired a very small, barely up and running startup company that had some interesting patents in mobile payments.
According to Mashable, Google’s latest purchase Zetawire had a patent for “mobile banking, advertising, identity management, credit card and mobile coupon transaction processingâ€. That sounds pretty much like a replacement for your wallet in your mobile phone then.
Google is known to be heavily into mobile payment, NFC and location-based technology at the moment, and its latest mobile phone, the Nexus S, has some NFC capability built-in. It’s looking like future versions of the iPhone will also have NFC built-in too.
So whether it’s a Google, Apple, or any other type of mobile phone, how would you feel about dumping your wallet and using your mobile to pay for everything. Is it an inevitable tool of the future, or will it not catch on? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
There are some more thoughts on why Google wanted to buy Zetawire on ReadWriteWeb.
photo credit: abulhussain