Amazon Jumping into NFC Mobile Payment Arena?

Amazon considering jump into NFC mobile payments

Apr. 4, 2011 (5:31 am) By: Brian Osborne

Amazon may soon become a player in mobile payments using near-field-communication (NFC) technology. NFC, already used in some credit cards, allows users to simply tap their mobile phones to pay for goods or services while also being able to receive loyalty points or other retail information on their handset. If Amazon is truly looking at utilizing NFC technology they would be in good company. Other well-known adopters including Microsoft, Apple and Google are already planning to offer their own NFC solutions via software, devices, or services of their own. AT&T, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless have also indicated their interest in this new market through a joint venture named Isis.

Why are there so many companies looking to get into mobile payments or NFC related services? They’ve seen the predictions by Gartner and ABI Research indicating that by 2014 340 million consumers will use mobile payments for transactions totaling $245 billion. Some of these payments may be powered by NFC as handsets with the technology begin increasing in number and are expected to double in 2012 from 35 million shipped this year.

Servicing mobile payments is nothing new to Amazon since they have already introduced a service called Amazon Payments which allows consumers to send and receive money online or through their mobile phones. Most would agree that NFC mobile payments would be a natural extension of this service. In addition to NFC mobile payments, Amazon is also looking at NFC-based marketing services allowing consumers to tap the NFC tag of a product located in a retail store to find it on Amazon’s website.

No final decision has been made by Amazon to officially enter the NFC mobile payment market, but Bloomberg cites one of its sources who say that a decision is expected in the next three to five months.

Read more at Bloomberg

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