NFC Gets Acceptance From Amazon and Samsung
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Samsung are the two major companies that are considering supporting NFC mobile payments.
After the recent reports of Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) tying up with MasterCard (NYSE:MA), CitiGroup (NYSE:C) and VeriFone Systems (NYSE:PAY) to enable mobile payments using NFC technology, Amazon is in the process of introducing a mobile payment service that will let customers pay for goods and services in brick and mortar stores using mobile phones.
The unit known as Amazon Payments is looking into enabling the service that will be based on near field communications technology. Internal sourced from the company who refused to be named reported on the project. Amazon is looking at ways of spreading its dominance on the internet commerce to the mobile arena. It is competing with companies such as Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Microsoft and Google who are also in the process of introducing mobile payment services integration into their operating systems.
The mobile transaction market is set to double by 2014, which is pushing companies such as Amazon and others to grab a pie of this huge sum, which is set to expand up to $340 million by 2014. In 2010 it was reported to be around $32 billion.
Mobile developers such as T-Mobile, AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) and Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) are developing mobile wallet services which will clash against the services developed by Google, Microsoft and Apple. Many other third party application manufacturers are also adding mobile payment services, such as Isis.
Amazon took its first few steps in the mobile commerce market last month with the introduction of Amazon Appstore application for Android phones. The application sells other applications meant for android devices. This was followed by a cloud music streaming and storage service that will let users buy, listen and store their music on Amazon’s servers and listen to it on their Android devices.
Samsung is in the process of unveiling mobile payment services in partnership with Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in United Kingdom for the upcoming London 2012 Olympics. Samsung and Visa are both official sponsors of the Olympics and the Paralympic Games. More than 60,000 locations in London are said to be equipped with NFC payment technology, which can help customers pay for their goods and services in these stores.
The Samsung phones will require special Visa enabled sim cards that will enable the cellphones to pay using their visa accounts. The service will be unveiled during the Olympics.
