As the iconic and innovative iPhone continues to hog the smartphone limelight following its recent June 29 launch, speculation regarding the possible appearance of a rival device from online search engine titan Google Inc. continues to grow. That speculation has been further fuelled this week following the discovery of a patent filing issued by Google for a mobile phone payment system labelled "GPay".
This latest nugget of gossip spewed forth by the ceaseless rumour mill comes hot on the heels of various potential handset images that were splashed across the Internet last week and suggested that Google is preparing to enter the telecom market with the launch of its iPhone-rivalling "GPhone". The GPay filing in question, which was submitted back in 2006 but has only now been released, outlines that a text message dispatched from a handset could then lead to "an electronic online payment," reports the Times Online. The patent describes that GPay works by a user sending a text through to Google providing payment details related to a specific payee.
GPay then transfers a debit between the user’s bank account and that of the receiving payee. "We file patent applications on a variety of ideas that our employees come up with. Some of those ideas later mature into real products or services, some don’t," offered a Google spokesman by way of sitting squarely on the fence of non-committal and revealing absolutely nothing.
Industry watchers claim that such a payment system hooked up through an online handset could prove to be extremely beneficial to Google if it is indeed intent on releasing its own low-cost online smartphone into the hotly contested market. Subscribe to RSS headline updates from: Powered by FeedBurner As the iconic and innovative iPhone continues to hog the smartphone limelight following its recent June 29 launch, speculation regarding the possible appearance of a rival device from online search engine titan Google Inc.
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