NEW YORK, May 26: Google unveiled a free mobile application on Thursday that turns a smartphone into an electronic wallet and is designed to replace plastic credit cards.

The Internet giant, at a press conference at its New York headquarters with financial partners Citibank, MasterCard and First Data and telecom ally Sprint, said “Google Wallet” is being field tested and will be available this summer.

Google Wallet will initially work with Google's Nexus S 4G smartphone from Sprint, the third-largest US wireless provider, and will eventually be expanded to more phones equipped with near field communication (NFC) technology.

An NFC chip embedded in a phone allows a user who has entered their credit card details to “tap-and-pay” for purchases at a checkout register equipped with the PayPass system from CitiMasterCard.—AFP