Samsung and Visa Confirm Plans to Launch Olympic Phone

Samsung and Visa have confirmed their plans to launch an NFC-equipped mobile phone for the Olympics.

As the 2012 Olympics draws closer, you can bet that the amount of promotional, special edition, and commemorative goods is going to grow proportionally larger. Today, Samsung and Visa kicked things off with the announcement that the two plan to launch a special Olympics 2012 phone. Pocket-Lint reports that Sandra Alzetta, Head of innovation and new product development at Visa Europe, this week confirmed the news at Visa’s first European security summit in Frankfurt.

Though details are still rather thin on the ground, we do know that the device will be NFC-capable and will feature special Olympic content. What's more, the phone will supposedly be available worldwide, not just in the United Kingdom.

Visa and Samsung first revealed their Olympic intentions back in April. The two announced that a partnership with Lloyd's TSB would see them give Olympic-branded handsets to all of the athletes competing in 2012. The three said the phone would also be available for fans to purchase too.

"We are delighted to be working with Visa at such an exciting time," Mike Regnier, director of personal current accounts at Lloyds TSB, said at the time. "The launch of mobile contactless payments will revolutionise the way people pay in the run up to, during, and beyond the Games."