Google Wallet expected to launch 9/19 for Sprint Nexus S users

Google Wallet is expected to go live today, kicking off a U.S. mobile payments industry that, while consumer interest may be waning, certainly has the wireless carriers, third parties such as PayPal and Intuit and major banking and credit companies standing at attention (CP: Verizon swiping credit cards with new Intuit hardware).

Wallet will launch in New York and San Francisco, and linked to Citi MasterCard cards and the Google Prepaid Card, users will eventually be able to tap-to-buy at hundreds of thousands of merchants. Among those easing users into the service will be The Container Store, Foot Locker, Subway, Walgreens, Duane Reade and Peet's Coffee & Tea. And indeed, a GigaOM employee caffeinating up this morning snapped a photo of what appears to be an up-and-running Wallet payment "station."

Said employee, however, didn't take advantage of Wallet, perhaps due to its main wrench-in-the-works: For now, the NFC-enabled Sprint Nexus S is the only phone that can take advantage of the service.

Other Android phone owners can acquire and affix NFC stickers to their phones, which will also do the trick, and it seems in Google's best interests to get complimentary stickers into Android users' hands post haste, as a lack of NFC technology is only the first hurdle that will needing clearing.

Despite NFC being more secure than plastic credit cards, there will inevitably be consumer security concerns. There's also a need for education about what's possible.

"Because Google Wallet is a mobile app, it will be able to do more than a regular wallet ever could, like storing thousands of payment cards and Google Offers but without the [George Costanza–style] bulk," Google explains on the Wallet site. "Eventually your loyalty cards, gift cards, receipts, boarding passes, tickets, even your keys will be seamlessly synced to your Google Wallet."

With NFC expected to facilitate the transfer of approximately $945 billion in 2015, and global mobile payments users to reach 893 million the same year, according to a September report from IE Market Research, interested parties are doubling up on their mobile payment investments. Verizon, for example, despite being a part of the Isis venture with AT&T and T-Mobile, announced in June that's also offering a browser-based payment service with Payfone (CP: Verizon venture with Payfone and Amex speeds ahead of Isis NFC plans).

Differentiating between such offers, and building loyalty, is still another challenge ahead, and so is simply convincing users that cash or credit cards are somehow inefficient or lacking — a thing Google hopes to do by pairing Wallet with Offers, which it launched in Portland in June, followed by New York and the Bay Area in July.

"Whether it's touring Napa wineries, grabbing a slice of deep dish pizza in San Francisco or Albany, CA, or catching an improv show in New York, stay tuned for the deals from the best these areas have to offer," Google wrote in July blog post for Offers, that sounds a lot like an overture for Wallet.