Developers and businesses alike are scurrying to get the coveted number one spot in the mobile payment platform. Right now, this is relatively a wide open field. But has everyone been overlooking a system that’s been in the works for over a year now? Many say that Near-Field Communications (NFC) is on the verge of tipping all other payment methods on their head.
NFC has been in the works, but flying under the radar for quite awhile now. Some of last year’s phones by Nokia, Samsung and Android all ready have radio frequency identification chips, also known as RFID, in them. Also, many of the new phones due to be released this year contain RFID chips.
What people don’t realize is that Near-Field Communications will be used for many other things besides making payments. So what are the possibilities of NFC? On the payment side, you can make payments with your NFC enabled Smartphone just by waving it in front of a “reader” at any merchant store that has them.
Faster, more convenient check-outs and you don’t need to carry cash or credit cards around with you. Another plan is to not only hold payment information for you, but also hold sporting or entertainment tickets, movie tickets, gift cards and merchant loyalty cards.
Another area that NFC can be used for is marketing; in store, personalized, real-time marketing. NFC can gather data for merchants about what you buy, your favorite things and stuff you don’t like. This lets them tailor sales and promotions just for you.
This system is fully interactive based on distance. When a customer with an NFC Smartphone gets within a foot or so of the product containing the NFC “tag”, it will send a message to
your phone asking if it can show you discounts or information it contains. All based on what you like and what you don’t like.
Statistics show that mobile phones outnumber personal computers five to one; and by Christmas there will be about 35 million NFC enabled Smartphone’s.
