The successor to the Google's Nexus One smartphone runs on fresh "Gingerbread" software and will allow users to "tap and pay," the Internet giant's chief said on Monday at a Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. Google's new mobile operating system, which has the code name "Gingerbread," will be out in a few weeks. The OS will integrate a near-field communication technology that could one day turn a smart phone into a digital payment system.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt demonstrated the technology while on stage of the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. The device he used for the demostration was not visible but speculation indicates that it is the successor to the Nexus One Android phone, probably called the Nexus S by Samsung.

Google had no immediate plans to develop any of its own mobile applications to take advantage of such payment capabilities, but Google's Android software could make the technology more widespread, as Google hopes that other companies could use the newly proposed mobile payment platform.