Two days after Apple released new iterations of the iPhone and iPad, it’s Google’s turn to hog the tech spotlight. The company has made its new payment system, Android Pay, available at over one million locations across the US.
$1 trillion market
The mobile payment market is very quickly reaching boiling point, with Apple Pay having recently launched in the UK and Samsung Pay being released in South Korea last month, and in the US later this month. It is estimated that the market will be worth $1 trillion dollars (£650bn) in 2017.
Opportunity
Google clearly saw Samsung Pay’s late launch as a moment of opportunity to get a share of the highly lucrative US market before its South Korean rival.
Features
Google says Android Pay will work with all NFC-enabled Android devices (running KitKat 4.4+), on any mobile carrier, at every tap and pay ready location across the US.
The service will allow users to store their credit card details on the smartphones, as well as gift cards, loyalty cards and special offers.
It will support credit and debit cards from the four major payment networks: American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa.
Partner merchants already include some of the biggest brands including Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Subway, Bloomingdale’s and ToysRUs.
Google Wallet
Consumers who are currently using the Google Wallet app will be able to access Android Pay through an update, whilst new users will be able to download it from the Google Play app store.
Mobile checkout capabilities will become available in certain apps in the coming months.
Whitepapers
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