Google’s Answer To Apple Pay

Apple Inc. AAPL 0.49% was the talk of the day today in the financial world, as the company exceeded a $700 billion market cap for the first time ever.

Many analysts praise the potential of Apple’s new Apple Pay mobile payment system, which is already gaining significant momentum as a credit card alternative.

Apple Pay is famous for allowing users to pay for purchases by verifying their identity via a fingerprint. However, if Google Inc GOOG 1.12% GOOGL 0.94% has its way, shoppers soon won’t even have to put down their shopping bags to pay at the register.
According to The Information, Google is working on an Apple Pay competitor that would allow users to verify payments by simply speaking their initials aloud.

The system is called “Plaso,” and is currently being tested at Papa John’s Int’l Inc. PZZA 1.76% and Panera Bread Co PNRA 1.47% locations.

Although details are fuzzy at this point, Plaso, which is currently only being tested by Google employees, presumably uses some form of biometric voice identification software to verify a speaker’s identity.

Google has not announced any plans for a wide launch of Plaso, but its potential success could be a much-needed shot in the arm for Google Wallet, which has failed to mirror the early success of Apple Pay. Apple Pay’s momentum continued just today when Starbucks Corporation SBUX 0.27% added support for Apple Pay to its iOS app.

Some are already questioning how comfortable users will be speaking their initials aloud to cashiers, and it remains to be seen just how far Plaso will go.

According to Tim Cook, Plaso has some major catching up to do, at least when it comes to Panera. Apple Pay is already used for 80 percent of mobile payments at the restaurant.

Read this article and all my other articles for free on Benzinga by clicking here

Want to learn more about the stock market? Or maybe you just want to be able to look sophisticated in front of your coworkers when they ask you what you are reading on your Kindle, and you’d prefer to tell them “Oh, I’m just reading a book about stock market analysis,” rather than the usual “Oh, I’m just looking at pics of my ex-girlfriend on Facebook.” For these reasons and more, check out my book, Beating Wall Street with Common SenseI don’t have a degree in finance; I have a degree in neuroscience. You don’t have to predict what stocks will do if you can predict what traders will do and be one step ahead of them. I made a 400% return in the stock market over five years using only basic principles of psychology and common sense. Beating Wall Street with Common Sense is now available on Amazon, and tradingcommonsense.com is always available on your local internet!