Apple pay has been referred to as one of the most revolutionary mobile payment systems of recent times. This of course is not exciting news for Google that has had its own mobile payment systems, Google Wallet. The introduction of Apple pay led to people talking less about Google Wallet, which has not been that popular, and more about Apple.
Well, Google is not about to let Apple win as the company is working on a new mobile payment system called Plaso. This service will run like an app on Android devices. It will be automatically activated when a user with who has it on his/her device enters a store that has the service enabled.
Both the user and the retailer need to have Bluetooth enabled on their individual devices for it to work. The store owner will then be able to identify the user by their initials. The users will then be able to pay for anything in the store without taking his/her phone out.
The ability of store employees to access your payment option based on your initial raises a lot of security and privacy issues. One of those is, what if two people with the same initials are in the store? This will be a big security challenge and it will be interesting to see how Google addresses it.
Plaso is still being tested and I hope Google fixes all these loopholes before making it public.