Google Wallet, meanwhile, is nearly a year old. And the Isis consortium of three U.S. carriers could officially launch its first mobile payment network any day now. Those approaches require a smartphone loaded with an app to communicate with a terminal at a store or other location via a near field communications chip or Bluetooth wireless.
However, PayPal is already enabling mobile payments in the cloud for 50 million mobile users without the need for a physical phone at the point of purchase. PayPal customers can simply enter a mobile phone number and PIN at a checkout keypad to transfer money from a PayPal account linked to a bank account or a credit card.
