Google to launch NFC payments’ trials

By Editor on March 18, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Google is planning NFC mobile payments’ trials in New York and San Francisco. According to reports, the trial will begin in the next four months and that Google will pay for the installation of thousandsâ€ of custom-built NFC-enabled Verifone terminals at merchants across both cities. It is speculated that Google’s Nexus S smartphone the first Android device to ship with built-in NFC functionality will play a key role in the trial.

These rumors follow on the back of Google’s recent launch of NFC-enabled marketing in Las Vegas, Portland and Austin, which allows users to swipe their NFC-enabled smartphones against a merchant-displayed sticker to access tourist/business information or special offers.

The service works in conjunction with the Google Places and Hotpot applications, which allows users to recommend and rate businesses and tourist attractions while allowing businesses to use customized Google kits from the Google Places catalogue to encourage customer participation.

The rumors about the latest trials have given rise to speculation that users will have coupons, gift-and-loyalty cards and subscriptions loaded onto their devices in addition to the usual purchasing information.

Filed under Mobile · Tagged with Austin, Google, Google Places, Hotpot applications, Las Vegas, Mobile, New York, Nexus S smartphone, NFC Payments, NFC-enabled smartphones, Portland, San Francisco, smartphone, USA

Citibank Singapore & M1 come up with new NFC pilot strategy

By Editor on April 9, 2009 · Leave a Comment

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: CitiBank Singapore and Singaporean mobile operator MobileOne (M1) are trying new marketing strategy to convince participants in their three-month NFC payments trial to make more purchases with their mobiles.

In NFC payments pilot, the companies are reportedly allowing trial participants to keep the Visa payWave-enabled Nokia 6212 Classic handsets if they make at least eight transactions with their phones each month. Three hundred Citibank Visa cardholders which are also M1 subscribers are participating in the trial. The participants have been provided with NFC-based mobile phones, which are embedded with a computer chip that contains their credit card details. The subscribers can make payments upto SGD 100 (EUR 50) in Singapore pilot. The mobile payments are being deducted from their Visa card accounts.