Over the years, with the advent of digital subscriber lines on Cell phones we all have stories of how you can use the IR port on your phone, or now Bluetooth to make payments. In February 2006 Google filed a patent for a "text message payment" system.

The abstract discusses a "computer-implemented method of effectuating an electronic on-line payment" while the patenttalks about how the system will work and why it is useful:

The payment process may occur through the simple composition by the payor of a text message that includes identifying information for the payee and an amount of the payment. The message may then be sent to a payment processing system, which may debit an account of the payor (i.e., reduce it in value), credit an account of the payee (i.e., increase it in value, such as monetary value), and notify either or both of the payor or the payee that the money has been transferred.

The inventions described here may provide one or more of the following advantages. Users of mobile devices may be provided with a convenient method of making payments, including when they are far from home, a banking institution, or a cash machine. Users may make micropayments without the overhead of other payment systems. Person-to-person commerce may be aided, so as to permit electronic transactions instead of cash transactions. As a result, users may be able to make transactions without the need to plan ahead and carry cash with them. 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. Transactions may occur that would not otherwise be trustworthy or safe using cash.

The GPay patent filing details how a sms text message from a mobile phone could trigger a "computer-implemented method of effectuating an electronic online payment". A user would send a text message to Google that gives details of a payment to a specified payee. GPay would debit the user's bank account and credit the payee.

The release of the patent filling follows fevered speculation on Internet blogs last week that Google was developing a new Internet-enabled mobile phone, dubbed GPhone. It is thought that the new Google Phone will be rolled out with the GPay payment service pre-installed.

Google already operates an online payments processing system, called Google Checkout, which competes with eBay's PayPal service, but according to Jupiter Research, that found that only 8% of online consumers who own a mobile phone are interested in using their hand sets to access account balances, how many will actually use the GPay to debit a user's bank account and credit a payee? And with US consumers losing more than $7 billion to viruses, spyware and e-mail phishing scams over the past two years, according to new research released by Consumer Reports, consumers are already sensitive to security issues, regardless, it is a tough hill to climb, to see how comes on board, and for what reason, but only time will tell who will be the next industry killer.

Personally, I think that if not Google, another DOT Net will spring up to fill the void, only to be acquired by eBay, Microsoft, or Google.