Lenovo has announced that it intends to enable notebooks and tablets with near field communication chips.
NFC technology based mobile payments have only just started to get moving as a number of large players in that ecosystem have launched the pilots to their programs, however, the latest news from Lenovo is that this environment will soon be broadening as new devices become enabled.
The device manufacturer intends to add near field communications to tablets, notebooks, and laptops.
For example, Lenovo has announced that its ThinkPad tablets will soon have an embedded NFC technology reader in some of its models. It also added that some of the models of its Ultrabook laptops will also include this type of chip. This way, it could potentially make it easier for consumers to pay for their online purchases.
Contactless payments and tap and go payments could become a possibility when these devices have NFC technology.
This would mean that a consumer who makes a purchase of a product or service online using the NFC technology equipped laptop or tablet would merely need to tap or wave an appropriate credit card over the reader in order to pay for an online transaction. This would eliminate the need to type the entire number into a checkout form.
The news of these new types of NFC technology enabled device was first released in San Francisco at the Expand conference, but at that time, no partnerships had been announced with payment companies.
Though nothing has been confirmed, there has been speculation that this could draw the attention of MasterCard and that it could be an important partner in this type of release. This would not be the first time that the credit card company had allied itself in a strategic collaboration with a device manufacturer, such as when it joined in with Intel in November 2011, when its Ultrabook was released. This allowed MasterCard to apply its PayPass contactless payment system into the Intel identity protection strategy that brings hardware and two-factor authentication together in order to make sure that user data remains safe.
Precisely how this NFC technology will be used for making payments for online purchases has yet to be announced. However, many have speculated that it could help to reduce the risk of fraud.
