Amazon mulls its own NFC shopping service
updated 07:15 pm EDT, Thu March 31, 2011
Amazon considers NFC payment service
Amazon may be the next to jump on NFC support as a scoop may have uncovered its plans. Its Amazon Payments division is considering using NFC--short-range wireless technologies--both for payments, such as swiping a phone at a register, as well as for marketing. In one proposal, it would even put NFC tags on the goods themselves; Bloomberg envisioned using an NFC tag on a pair of jeans to find the right size on Amazon's own website.
A decision to go ahead would take place in the next three to five months, one of the tipsters said. Platform choices weren't mentioned, but Amazon would almost certainly side with Android first given the launch of the Amazon Appstore this week, integrated NFC support in Android 2.3, and more overall control over how NFC worked than on a platform like iOS.
Such a strategy may prove difficult given Amazon's frequent confrontations with retailers. Many store chains have bemoaned the effect of Amazon's online orders on their businesses and have sometimes had staff actively deter shoppers from bringing out their phones in the store, since they presume the customer is looking for a better price. Best Buy has been informally nicknamed a showroom for Amazon since customers often get a demo in store only to shop for a better price online.
Amazon would further butt heads against others launching their own projects. Google is trialing NFC with Citigroup later this year, and Apple is believed to be adding NFC to the iPhone 5 for a tie-in with iTunes and possibly other services. Google may be the biggest threat since it might be loathe to fight the world's largest online retailer while promoting its own NFC system.
Amazon didn't comment on the claims.
