Amazon Reportedly Considering NFC-Based Mobile Payment System
Well, if there's anything creating tons of buzz this year, it's 3D and
tablets. But if there's anything else, it's NFC. Near-field
Communication has taken America by storm, just years after taking other
continents for a ride. NFC is short for a technology that allows users
to pay for items with just a tap of their mobile, and it has the
potential to revolutionize the way consumers purchase products. With the
saturation of mobile phones so high now, it's becoming more feasible to
think of a world where we use phones instead of credit cards to pay for
items. And Amazon knows it.
Amazon's obviously a huge, huge retailer, and it would make a lot of sense for them to start invested or at least evaluating the future of NFC. According to a report on Bloomberg, they're considering the introduction of a service that would enable consumers to pay for goods in B&M stores using a mobile handset. Amazon, in B&M stores? It could happen. The company's Amazon Payments unit is reportedly "exploring whether to start a service based on so-called near-field-communication technology."
Google is also talking about doing something similar, so if Amazon jumped in the ring, there'd obviously be a great deal of competition in this space. The plan could even go deeper than just payments, with these same sources confirming that NFC-based marketing services could still be in the mix. "For instance, a consumer shopping for jeans who can’t find the right size in a retail store might be able to tap a handset against the item’s NFC tag to locate the correct item for order through Amazon.com."
No matter what happens here, it's pretty clear that the future of payments is going to get pretty exciting. And frankly, that's a crazy thing to be able to say.
Amazon's obviously a huge, huge retailer, and it would make a lot of sense for them to start invested or at least evaluating the future of NFC. According to a report on Bloomberg, they're considering the introduction of a service that would enable consumers to pay for goods in B&M stores using a mobile handset. Amazon, in B&M stores? It could happen. The company's Amazon Payments unit is reportedly "exploring whether to start a service based on so-called near-field-communication technology."
Google is also talking about doing something similar, so if Amazon jumped in the ring, there'd obviously be a great deal of competition in this space. The plan could even go deeper than just payments, with these same sources confirming that NFC-based marketing services could still be in the mix. "For instance, a consumer shopping for jeans who can’t find the right size in a retail store might be able to tap a handset against the item’s NFC tag to locate the correct item for order through Amazon.com."
No matter what happens here, it's pretty clear that the future of payments is going to get pretty exciting. And frankly, that's a crazy thing to be able to say.
