The way we pay for things has been made simpler with time. Checks are now a rarity, especially for typical purchases. And once upon a time, a credit card payment required a call to an outside office to confirm that the account had enough funds. Now, we might be on the verge of making another step forward: paying by “phone tapping.”
According to a report from BusinessWeek, two Google inside sources who’ve chosen to remain anonymous have told us that the search engine giant has a “payment service” in the works for their Android phones. This service would use near-field communications (NFC) technologies to allow users to tap their phone against a scanner to pay.
Of course, this is all still in the speculative area, but here’s what we know:
1) Google flat out purchased a Canadian NFC company aimed at doing just this only weeks ago.
2) Google’s been adding NFC technologies to all of their phones.
3) Googler Eric Schmidt has spoken on the subject, stating with enthusiasm that “You’d ‘bump’ for everything and eventually replace credit cards.”
4) Two inside sources are now telling us that it’s specifically on its way.
NFC is an “on its way up” technology for payments, and analysts predict that it will become a prominent player in mobile payments by the end of 2014. Google certainly isn’t the only one on the boat, either. Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, PayPal, and Visa have all been working on the technology.
How and when all of these different NFC payment technologies might be released is still very much in question, and how rapidly stores will pick up on the idea has yet to be seen. However, it shouldn’t be long before we find out more details. Our inside sources have said that Google may be releasing its option by the end of 2011.
