Visa payWave now available for NFC-enabled Blackberry, LG, and Samsung handsets
If you own an NFC-enabled Blackberry, LG, or Samsung handset, you can now make use of NFC payments. Both Visa and Visa Europe has announced that these handsets can now be used on the Visa payWave platform. This new payment system allows users to pay for goods and services by simply tapping their phones on point of sale readers.
RIM handsets included on the list is the Blackberry 9900 Bold Touch, 9790 Bold, and the 9360 Curve. Other handsets included are the LG Optimus NET and the Samsung Galaxy S2. Unfortunately, the NFC-enabled Galaxy S2 is not the version on sale in the UK.
Sandra Alzetta, Visa Europe’s Head of Mobile Business Unit and Innovation Strategy, said, “The players are now in place for mobile payments to become a reality. We are working with our member banks, mobile network operators and key handset partners to ensure that future payment technologies are as easy, intuitive and secure as card-based transactions are today. Today’s announcement plays a significant role in getting those new technologies into the hands of the consumer. It is a very exciting time for us all.”
Nick Holland, a Yankee Group senior analyst, said, “Today’s announcement is another example of the momentum we are seeing behind NFC as an industry standard for mobile payments. Yankee Group predicts that the value of NFC-based transactions will grow significantly, from $27 million in 2010 to $40 billion in 2014.”
This was after MasterCard certified the Blackberry 9900 and 9360 for a similar service called PayPass. PayPal has also included NFC support on their Android app.
CES 2012 also showed signs of NFC growth. The Blackberry OS 7.1 update will include RIM’s NFC platform called Blackberry Tag. Also at CES, Sony unveiled two phones carrying the Sony-only brand name called the Sony XPERIA S and Ion. The XPERIA S also sports an NFC chip.
It seems NFC really is the next big thing in mobile. What do you think?
