Since the launch of Apple Pay last September, Google hasbeen scrambling to revamp its payment offerings in order to remain competitivein a marketplace that many have seen Google fail to make significant in-roadsinto. Apple Pay has two distinct payment use cases, it facilitates ‘tap andpay’ at the POS and allows users to seamlessly complete in-app purchase onmobile.
In theory, Google Wallet can do both these things. However,it looks like Google is unhappy with its current application and rebuilding itsoffering from scratch—starting with a rebuilt API for developers and storemerchants to accept payments from Android users.
“A source close to the matter told Ars Technica that thenew application programming interface (API) will grant companies the option toadd in-store and in-app payments to third-party applications.
Android Pay will act as a platform for customers to addand store their credit card data and make purchases with a single click. Inaddition, according to the publication, companies which adopt Android Pay willbe able to use the API for tap-to-pay transactions in traditional, physicaloutlets.”
It remains to be seen whether this means that the GoogleWallet brand will be retired in favor of ‘AndriodPay’. More likely, GoogleWallet will remain the consumer facing app that captures card credentials fromAndroid users, while the new APIs will allow Google to implement new last-inchpayment features. These could be anything from an Android equivalentimplementation of TouchID to support for BLE. We’ll be watching thesedevelopments closely.
Overview by Nikhil Joseph, Analyst, Emerging Technologies for Mercator Advisory Group
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