Paying with the phone is very common in countries like Japan. You can pay for bus, train tickets or stuff from vending machines with the cell phone. In US the practice is very rare but merchants like Starbucks is finding a way to use phone to pay for coffee.
Android phones like Google Nexus S already carries NFC ( Near Field Communication) chip, which is the main ingredient needed for using the phone to pay for your daily needs, just like a credit or debit card, or becoming an e-wallet. NFC chips transmit and receive information, in short range, like four to five inches.
So the word on street is that Apple will have these chips on iPhone 5 and iPad 2, which people expect to see in the mid 2011. So the experts assume the NFC application will soon follow.
Be it Android or iPhone, the $6.2 trillion, Americans spend with their credit cards, has lot of companies showing interest on NFC enabled phones. From credit card companies like VISA, Master Card and e-payment companies like Paypal has a lot to gain and so are the advertising companies like Apple with iADs and Google with AdWords / AdSense. NFC chips will allows all sort of wonders with phones. But in the case of Paypal, you don't want your phone frozen by Paypal, at least not me! But in some shops in Palo Alto, CA, you can buy your lunch with your Android Phone, and Bling Nation's NFC-chipped BlingTag coupled with Paypal.
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| Credit CNet |
Apple has already hired Benjamin Vigier, who worked on the technology at mobile-payment provider MFoundry and prepping a prototype payment terminal for merchants, ranging from hair dressers to mom and pop shops, where iPhone carrying crowd most like to linger.
Either way, e-wallets will be a feature we all will be using soon and Apple could be the one to promote the trend, unless Google jumps the bus.
Bloomberg
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