Get ready folks, Google is breaking into the “tap-to-pay” market through a new innovative system launched in partnership with Sprint, MasterCard, and Citibank. Just launched in June, Google “Wallet” aims to revolutionize the way people carry around credit cards, coupons, and receipts by linking your smartphone and credit card information to a “tap-to-pay” service through MasterCard’s “PayPass” terminals. Currently MasterCard has only 135,000 of these terminals at points of purchase in retail environments in the US. They hope to expand the availability of these soon, and with it tap into the vast network of those carrying Sprint smartphones enabled with Google Wallet. Google will also offer their own pre-paid version of a debit card that can be linked to Wallet.

To start with, Google will only have its Wallet feature available on the Google Nexus S 4G, carried exclusively through Sprint. But this “single-tap solution” should in theory mean that consumers can easily swipe or pass their phones by a device on a countertop, and pay for an item within seconds.

This sort of linking of our finances, purchasing power, and mobility by tying in mobile smartphones has been on the radar for many in the tech world as a natural next step in the evolution of an on-demand, “I want it now”, mobile-crazed culture. But the success of this venture hinges on a few major considerations:

1. Will this last or be a flash in the pan?
2. How long before the other 3 of the 4 major national wireless carriers want to jump onboard with this movement? According to AP and Fox News, Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T have already formed a consortium called “ISIS” to build out their own wallet-like device with purchasing functionality.
3. What about the other credit cards? Can Google Wallet sustain without Visa? It may not have to.
4. Can Google convince wary retailers that mobile payments are more secure than credit/debit card payments? And are they really more secure?

This is a tremendous step forward in the progress of seamlessly merging our mobile/online world and everyday life. If this does in fact take off, as so many Google ventures do, it will be interesting to see how brands will adapt to this new addition to the retail environment.

Is this something your brand has started thinking about yet?