GPAY Patent Fuels Speculation Over New Google Phone Mobile Service

1. ‘GPAY’ Serial No.: 364571
2. Filed: February 28, 2006
3. Publication Number: 20070203836

Back in February there was a patent application filed by Google and it has just been published. The application is for a SMS Payment System on a mobile platform. Speculation today is that a “GPAY” SMS mobile payments service might be included with a new ‘Gphone’ product which is rumored to be in shopper’s hands by Christmas.

I’ve included here some images from the patent application.

This image shows that in addition to using GPAY at retail merchants, its also a secure method to purchase from vending machines and validating large payment amounts.

Just like the Google Checkout system online, the application discusses offering convenient ‘mobile’ transaction reporting,

“Tracking and reporting of transactions may also occur, so that users can more easily summarize activity in their financial accounts without extensive manual bookkeeping operations.”

If Google is rolling out a new mobile phone product soon, it makes good sense to have a ‘killer app’ to accompany the product. That is how Patrick Altoft feels over at the The SEOptimise blog, which was the first yesterday to report on the new patent. Many thanks for that good news.

The patent also addresses smaller ‘micro’ payments without the big fees associates with using a credit card,

“Users may make micropayments without the overhead of other payment systems.”

Obopay is also making a play to conquer mobile online payments, without the big fees. Their new widget allows cell phones to make payments directly to any web page.