Google has launched its Google Wallet app via an over-the-air update to all Sprint Nexus S 4G phones in the US.
The app enables users to pay for goods and services using a Citi MasterCard credit card, or a Google Prepaid Card, which can be funded with any of the user’s existing credit cards. Google is offering a $10 sweetener bonus to the Google Prepaid Card to any user who sets it up in Google Wallet before the end of the year “as a thanks to early adopters”.
In a blog post announcing the launch, Osama Bedier, Google’s vice president of payments, reveals that Visa, Discover and American Express have made available their NFC specifications that could enable their cards to be added to future versions of Google Wallet. “Our goal is to make it possible for you to add all of your payment cards to Google Wallet, so you can say goodbye to even the biggest traditional wallets,” Bedier writes. 
Google Wallet will work with Mastercards existing PayPass terminals. Retailers signed up to the scheme include American Eagle Outfitters, Bloomingdales, Foot Locker, Macy’s, Toys ‘R’ Us, Subway and Radio Shack.
