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Your cellphone as your wallet? It's closer than you think
Stuart Corner
Thursday, 16 December 2010 15:24
Having your cellphone as the only thing you need to carry to pay for anything from bus and train fares to your week's groceries and much more is become a distinct possibility as a 'ducks line up' for mobile payment systems enabled by near field communications.
iSuppli predicts that worldwide shipments of cellphones with built-in NFC capability will rise to 220.1 million units in 2014, up by a factor of four from 52.6 million in 2010. "In 2014, 13 percent of cellphones shipped will integrate NFC, up from 4.1 percent in 2010," it says.
Also pushing NFC for mobile payments are the three largest mobile operators in the US. iSuppli says: "After two years of discussions, AT&T Wireless, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile have launched a joint venture known as ISIS that will develop a mobile payment system based on NFC. While ISIS is initially working with Barclaycard US and Discover Financial Services, the carriers said they are open to collaborating with any bank or credit card company that would like to use the ISIS."
Within the next 18 months all three hope to be selling NFC-enabled cellphones and an NFC ecosystem in place in some regions of the US with a full nationwide rollout slated to be accomplished by 2013 iSuppli says.
Important developments are also taking place in NFC standards. Earlier this month the NFC Forum launched its certification program gives device manufacturers a means of establishing their products' compliance with its technical specifications and interoperability with each other's.
The Forum also released four new technical specifications taking the total published to 15. Announcing the new specs it said: "[The certification] program, combined with these core technical specifications, clears the way for NFC developers to bring more globally interoperable NFC solutions to market."
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