If you read our earlier coverage on Google finally bringing gift cards and wish lists to Google Play, you will be pleased to know that photos of Google’s new retail gift cards have already started to leak, and will offer marketplace values of $10 and $25.
Shots of the gift cards were shared with Android Central, highlighting that Google will almost certainly seek to place its new retail cards alongside those of its rivals. Apple already offers iTunes credit in supermarkets, gift stores and other retailers, but it’s unknown whether Google has intentions to offer these outside the US.
Apple already offers gifting through both iTunes and the App Store, having added the latter option back in 2010. In fact, even RIM — maker of BlackBerry, the former smartphone champ — offers gifting, and users can purchase apps as gifts for friends and loved ones via its BBM messaging service.
It’s a move that has taken Google some time to realise. Now the company offers its own Nexus-branded smartphone and tablet, it has become a necessary step for the technology giant to capitalise on sales of apps, movies, books and music — especially for younger users.
Kids typically don’t have the option to buy Google Play apps and content, and gift cards offer a safe and secure way of crediting an account without running up credit card charges.
We now wait for Google to announce the feature. When it will is anyone’s guess.
[Image Credit: Per Olof Fersburg]
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