Tag: nfc technology

NFC technology forum board of directors adds Google

| March 9, 2013

NFC Technology GoogleThe online search giant has now added itself to the near field communication nonprofit industry association.

Google has taken another step to underline the increasing interest it has in NFC technology by joining the board of directors for the industry association that has taken on the task of moving its use forward on a global scale.

The organization is a nonprofit that is geared toward increasing near field communication use worldwide.

The internet search giant is now a contributor to the NFC Forum, which accepted its participation as of Tuesday. Google, the owner of Android, has a considerable interest in NFC technology for a number of reasons, including its own mobile payments projects which have not been taking off at quite the pace that was expected.

Google had previously been a part of the NFC technology forum at a Principal level.

Following Tuesday, Google’s membership was upgraded to the Sponsor level at the NFC technology organization. Having reached the very top level of membership at the NFC Forum, this entitled the industry giant to a seat on the Board of Directors.

According to the NFC Forum Chairman, Koichi Tagawa, “As both a mobile operating system and NFC payment solution provider, Google brings a great deal of knowledge and experience to our Board.”

The Chairman went on to say that “The NFC Forum – and NFC users everywhere – will benefit greatly from the contributions of Google and our new members from around the world.” This is the belief upon which the organization was founded and that drives it to progress NFC technology around the world for a number of different uses.

The forum has said that it is still adding innovative companies from all over the world to its membership list and that the fact that this roster is growing at such a rate is a clear reflection of the “growing momentum for the adoption and implementation of NFC technology.” Though Google is an important addition to the Board of Directors, the organization does not feel that it will be the last important addition to the group. As adoption and awareness increases, so will the length and quality of this list.

Mobile payments partnership between Samsung and Visa won’t define the market

| March 8, 2013

Mobile Payments partnership Samsung and VisaThough these two industry giants are working together, it is still unlikely that it will be enough.

Samsung and Visa have recently announced their mobile payments partnership that will have the PayWave app automatically installed in all of the Galaxy S4 smartphones, but most experts in the industry agree that this still won’t be enough to lead to mass adoption of the service.

This channel has seen considerable struggles in getting started, but this likely won’t be enough to make the difference.

It is particularly unlikely that this extra step toward mobile payments will lead to much of a difference overnight. The partnership brings the Visa service together with the Samsung NFC technology that would allow consumers to use their smartphones to tap a reader at a point of sale in order to quickly and easily complete a purchase transaction.

The devices with the mobile payments technology and app will become available next week.

It is unlikely that the mobile payments will begin to occur with any great impact as of that point. Experts feel that while this type of move is important so that potential users will have the technology that is required to actually use a wallet over their smartphones, those owners still don’t quite have the desire to use it as of yet.

Eden Zoller, a researcher from Ovum, said that “Ovum’s consumer survey showed that usage of mobile payments is still very low for most people and this clearly needs to be change if mobile payments are to become mainstream.” That said, she also pointed out that it is still very important to add the NFC technology equipped devices to the market so that as users become interested, they will have what is needed and be familiar with it.

Similarly, Forrester analyst Clement Teo said that adding the payWave app from Visa is only one of a large number of efforts that will be needed to plunge the world into the use of mobile payments. He pointed out that there are many players, and they will all need to align for the explosion of use to actually occur.

Teo added that “The popularity of Samsung handsets is but one factor for mobile payments, but it also depends on the type of payments.”