UK Retailers Prepare for NFC Payments
Who want's a credit card capable of playing Angry Birds?
We know Google, Microsoft, Apple and Amazon are planning on utilising Near Field Communication technology in their forays into the world of mobile payments. This week, the BBC reports that thousands of shops in the UK are also preparing themselves for customers who want to ‘wave and pay’ with their mobile phones.
However, rather than wait on Google, Apple or Microsoft to launch devices with NFC support built in, companies in the UK are taking things into their own hands. Orange and MasterCard will jointly launch an NFC-ready handset between April and June, while Visa and O2 have similar plans to launch a device in the summer.
Near Field Communication allows data to be passed wirelessly from one device to another and the smartphone industry has latched onto the technology as a way for customers to make wireless transactions, turning their phone into an electronic wallet of sorts.
Systems from Google, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon will offer more than just NFC payments. Each of the companies plans to bring something extra to their mobile payments schemes to increase revenue. Whether it’s targeted advertisements or vouchers, there’s been a lot of talk of loyalty points programs and location-based coupons. Amazon apparently wants to offer customers the ability to scan an item you want but can’t find in your size, say a pair of jeans, and have the Amazon payment app find it for you on Amazon.com.
Speaking to the BBC, MasterCard’s Edward Chandler revealed the UK won’t be left out of these little extras either.
"It's as secure as any credit or debit card is today and also what you can then add on to that,” he said. "You can add on ticketing, you can add on coupons, so we believe it's going to make consumers' lives simpler and more rewarding."
The Beeb reports that retailers expect NFC to really take off this summer, with a possible 40,000 businesses using it by the end of the year. However, with just a few of today’s phones supporting the technology, we’ll likely have to wait a little longer for things to really take off. For a list of current phones with NFC support, check out this little list over on nearfieldcommunicationsworld.com.
Are you eager to try NFC or will you stick to signing on the dotted line or entering in your PIN? Let us know in the comments below!
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Signing on the doted line? Can you still do that?
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Japan had this technology for aaaaggggeeeeeessss.........
Im surprised US and UK are only beginning to adopt this now.
The potential problem I see with this is that in UK, phones get stolen very often (compared to that in Japan), as such providers and creditors must make sure users will have easy access to canceling their NFC mobiles when such situations occur.