PayPal, the pioneer of online payments, has been embattled in a legal battle with Google recently. The company claims that Google’s new mobile wallet infringes upon an already existing concept, which lies firmly in the ownership of PayPal. While the unrest between the two companies continues, PayPal has unveiled the very product which started all the fuss. At the MobileBeat 2011 conference in San Francisco, California, the company showed off their new NFC Android widget.
The add-on, named PayPal Touch, allows for the transfer of money between two NFC-enabled mobile devices by simply touching them together. The company is certainly no stranger to mobile commerce, and Laura Chamber, senior director of PayPal Mobile, says that the company’s expertise in the field will set them apart from competitors.
Currently, the add-on is only available for Nexus S smart phones, as it is the only Android product that comes with an NFC chip built in. Several other Android phones being released in the near future will have the same functionality. As for security issues, Chambers assures that any risk is mitigated by the encryption methods used when storing financial information are cutting edge.
Chambers says that this particular product has only been in development for a few months. PayPal, however, has been testing NFC technology for several years. The final product will be ready before the end of the summer, according to Chambers.
