Nokia has announced that it has been secretly working on a new paperless coupons service called Nokia Perks, which will offer mobile phone users discounts that will be redeemable with a near-field communications (NFC) chip.
The company has already been developing this service in order to draw smart shoppers through a variety of different savings opportunities. The concept is comparable to Groupon by Google, in that it will permit customers to benefit from the offers directly through their mobile devices.
Perks is completely paperless and allows consumers to search for coupons using their mobile devices and then use those same devices in order to redeem them, instead of having to print them out for a paper copy to provide at the point of sale.
Nokia Perks will use the latest NFC technology in handsets in order to provide the necessary information for the discount at the cash counter. It is an entirely free service that allows customers to search for possible coupons before they buy a product, shop at a store, or eat at a restaurant.
This type of service is already available except that they currently require that a coupon be printed out in order to redeem it. Nokia Perks will skip that step with the NFC chip. This way, they can save time, money, and paper, for a great deal of added convenience in their effort to save a few extra dollars.
Nokia expects their Nokia N9 product – equipped with the necessary NFC chip – to become available within the next few months.