A smaller, concentrated area would be better for any adoption.
If 1 in 1000 people in a given square mile have access to Wallet, and 1 in 1000 retail outlets support it, what are the chances anyone will actually use it and give you the data you need to improve it? A far better approach would be to give it to every google employee and as many residents around Google HQ as possible, and convince as many local businesses as you can to use it, covering their costs. Then you start to get an idea of what its real-life usage cases are, and where you aren't delivering. Giving it to a smattering of technorati and having a few businesses support it isn't likely to lead to much use.
Are you suggesting there would be a peer pressure to use the system? What would prevent Google from covering the costs of the companies in the rollout?
What is difficult about figuring out what use cases there are? They want to replace swiped credit cards. Wherever you swipe a credit card - they want to be.
>>A far better approach would be to give it to every google employee and as many residents around Google HQ as possible
Theres not preventing this from happening, in fact that kind of is whats happening already. The announcement only covers general population rollout.
>>Giving it to a smattering of technorati and having a few businesses support it isn't likely to lead to much use.
"Giving" what, exactly? They are testing a service.
If 1 in 1000 people in a given square mile have access to Wallet, and 1 in 1000 retail outlets support it, what are the chances anyone will actually use it and give you the data you need to improve it? A far better approach would be to give it to every google employee and as many residents around Google HQ as possible, and convince as many local businesses as you can to use it, covering their costs. Then you start to get an idea of what its real-life usage cases are, and where you aren't delivering. Giving it to a smattering of technorati and having a few businesses support it isn't likely to lead to much use.