Has Google cracked mobile commerce?

Last week at a public launch Stephanie Tilenius, Google commerce and payments vice president stated

“Today, we’ve joined with leaders in the industry to build the next generation of mobile commerce”

Available to (US only) customers from this Summer is a new feature from Google and its partners (Citi, MasterCard, First Data and Sprint).... the Google Wallet, a new way of turning a smartphone into a smart way of paying for things. Wallet uses Near Field Communication (NFC) to make secure and fast payments conveniently by just tapping the phone on a terminal near to the checkout or payment area.

Google Wallet has been developed to work with MasterCard's PayPass network, which is already working in 124,000 PayPass-enabled stores across America. The trials of the technology have already started in New York and San Francisco, but as yet there's no word on if and when this service is to be rolled-out in the UK.

However, the technology and partners are available in the UK for Google to use when it wants.... We already have NFC phones available, such as Google's Nexus S and some versions of the Samsung Galaxy S II and BlackBerry Bold. Plus.... Orange and Barclaycard coincidentally launched their NFC payment service last week.

All indications are that this is finally the mobile payment service we've been waiting for and finally sees the convergence of an electronic payment and the one device we always keep with us.... our mobile phone.