And we're in! We're located on the fourth floor of Google's sprawling New York digs... smooth jazz playing in the background, blue and green lights flowing over the walls. No sign of products on the stage, just a podium.
Lots of Google peeps and "partners" milling about the stage and surrounding area. If we were capable of superhuman hearing, we'd be tuning in to their conversations right now and reporting on them... but alas.
"There will be no video recording of this presentation." Yes, sir.
We're not seeing any hands-on or demonstration kiosks around, so this might be strictly a presentation where partners are trotted out. We're hoping that Google lets us run amok through the building when this show is over, but we're not getting our hopes up.
You know, the second congressional hearing regarding AT&T's proposed acquisition of T-Mobile is going on right now... maybe the grand finale of this presentation will be AT&T using an NFC-enabled Nexus S to pay for the transaction.
Stephaniec Tilenius, VP of commerce at Google, is on the stage.
"We are just getting started. Today we have some exciting news to share with you about mobile and local commerce."
Google Wallet and Google Offers are the two announcements today.
It's an open platform -- Google's inviting everyone to participate in the services.
"Our goal is to bring together all the pieces of the ecosystem. Your phone will be your wallet. Just tap, pay, and save."
eCommerce poised to exceed a trillion dollars by 2013.
"You're seeing every retail experience offline come online."
"Ten years ago, 70 percent of consumers would tell you they wouldn't pay online." Today, it's reversed -- 70 percent access their credit card on the internet.
"We went from barter to coin, coin to paper, and paper to plastic."
Here comes MasterCard's Ed Mclaughlin to talk about NFC.
"What we were able to do [with NFC trials] to provide the foundation" of Google's announcement today.
"How do we support form factors beyond that square of plastic?"
Over 120,000 merchants in the US are ready to go with Google Wallet.
"Over half of US smartphone users have used their phone to shop online or research purchases."
Here comes Tilenius from Google again.
Citi, MasterCard, First Data, and Sprint are the big partners here.
"We believe 2011 and beyond will be the age of MoLo -- Mobile Local commerce."
Looks like the app -- at least the sample app that Google's showing on screen -- can take your shopping list and match it with coupons on the fly.
When you get to check-out, all the loyalty rewards for your purchase are automatically applied when you tap to pay.
On the merchant side, Google makes loyalty rewards super configurable, sounds like -- multiple spending levels and so on.
Field test for Google Wallet starts today, official release is this summer.
