Phone-y money

Google launched Google Wallet last year, collaborating with Sprint and Citi MasterCard. Google spent untold millions to subsidize the terminals that are increasingly to be found at checkout counters around the United States-terminals that can register the tap of a phone equipped with Near Field Communication (NFC). It´s also what Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, and their partners plan to do this summer, when they begin to roll out their rival service, Isis Mobile Wallet. Around the world similar programs, notably Orange´s Quick Tap in Britain, are being unveiled. Google wallet turns phones into cards then turn them into readers. But what people want are phones that can send money to any other phone.