The new Google wallet is looking pretty good. Luckily I have the requisite phone, the Nexus S. Only problem is that I don’t have a MasterCard to use it with. The good news is that Google also announced today that most of the other card issuers have made available their NFC specifications.

I can see some really neat things coming out of this. Imagine not having to carry around a wallet anymore and having all your cards at the ready. I’m not speaking of just your credit cards here but rather your frequent shopper cards like Food Lion or BiLo. Also what about coupons. No more clipping those things and having to take them with you. It will be a wonderful world when we all NFC.

That’s the key here of course is availability. Currently there are only about 300,000 merchants with NFC enabled terminals. When will the rest convert and who will cover the cost? For a lot of companies the cost might be prohibitive. Also what is the financial gain. In other words who is making the money from it. I doubt Google is making money with every swipe. Perhaps if the card processors charged less than a regular card that would speed adoption by the merchants and eventually consumers. That’s the nut here. Everybody has to be on board for NFC to work. It’s an awesome technology that I would hate to see not get its chance.

Google’s First Wallet Commercial