Mobile phone payments using near field communication (NFC) technology, for Oyster card style contact free purchases, will begin to go mainstream as soon as next year, according to a new report.
Nokia‘s been championing NFC as a way to do everything from a buying a train ticket to swapping virtual business cards, but now an independent report says your phone will start to kill off the credit card, loyalty card and bus pass by 2011 and roll them all inside your handset.
Nokia: NFC oyster payments mainstream by 2012
In “NFC: The Road To Commercial Deployment”, author Sarah Clark of SJB Research says that the UK, France and Korea will be among the first countries to adopt NFC in mobiles in a big way, with the US following soon after. The question though, is whether phone manufacturers like Nokia, networks or banks will be the ones to reap the benefits and dominate the new industry.
“Ultimately, only two or three companies in each country will succeed in building a major new business providing NFC services to businesses and consumers. The winners could be banks or mobile operators, or even a new entrant to the market,” she writes.
We’re not sure who’ll be left standing when the dust settles, but we can’t wait for the day to dawn. There are already credit cards which can double as transport passes, but we’re itching to have our travel pass, debit card and Tesco Clubcard all stored inside a phone, so we never leave them at home.
If you’re ana analyst, you can check out the full report here for an eye watering sum, but we recommend checking out what Nokia’s got planned for NFC right here instead.
Out TBC | £TBC | The NFC Report
