Dive Brief:

• Google’s replacement for Google Wallet, Android Pay, is up and running at several retailers as of Thursday.

• The payment system employs Near-Field Communications in stores and is also available to use through the app store on Android phones.

• The launch could have a significant impact on mobile payments because devices running Google’s Android make up the majority of smartphones in use worldwide and account for 40% of mobile traffic in the U.S. 

Dive Insight:

As the first chip-enabled credit cards go into use — Target is one retailer that, understandably, has its POS systems up and ready to accept the new cards — shoppers will find credit-card payments in store to be a bit clunky. That’s true even though the U.S. has forgone the “PIN” part of “chip-and-PIN” cards; that is, shoppers here don’t enter a special one-use code at point of sale the way they do elsewhere in the world.

That is likely to move at least some people to take a new look at contactless payments like mobile. And with Android Pay (whose ancestor was Google Wallet), a lot more people now have that option.

“When you use a mobile app, it’s a more secure way, but as easy as swiping or tapping,” Laurence Cooke, founder and CEO of loyalty and payment platform nanoPay, told Retail Dive. “I don’t think Apple Pay can be completely successful everywhere without Android also being completely successful. My only opinion is that it should be up to retailers to choose. We shouldn’t try to force it.”

That’s a reference to CurrentC, the retailer-developed app that has had a host of self-inflicted wounds, including at first pressuring participating retailers to forego Apple Pay and Android Pay, and which has been delayed indefinitely.