Amazon Quietly Released Its Own Digital Wallet
As spotted by TechCrunch, Amazon has quietly launched Amazon Wallet in Amazon's App Store and Google Play.
The app is still in beta, but it is publicly available for free, and the app will be pre-installed on the Fire Phone when it ships at the end of the month.
Like Google Wallet and Passbook, Amazon Wallet will let you add and store your digital gift cards in one location on your phone for easy access. The idea is that you won't have to carry around tons of cards and heavy wallets, and instead you can just easily open a barcode, QR code, text, or image on your phone to scan a loyalty, membership, or gift card.
Unlike Google Wallet, however, Amazon Wallet does not yet integrate actually payments or credit cards. But it is connected to Amazon's microsite for the digital wallet, which lists the credit and debit cards you have attached to your Amazon account in addition to any gift, loyalty, or membership cards. So mobile payments may not be too far off for Amazon Wallet.