Samsung pushes NFC at Olympics and in Japan
updated 06:20 pm EST, Fri February 24, 2012
Unveils 2012 Olympics' mobile pay app with Visa
Samsung has launched two new initiatives to encourage the usage of NFC mobile payment solutions. The phone and tablet maker has unveiled its official mobile payment app for the upcoming 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Games in London later this year. Samsung also announced that it will work with FeliCa to design NFC compatible chip solutions supporting mobile wallet apps for mobile devices in Japan.
Visa, as with most recent Olympics, is the only credit card accepted at game events. Samsung announced a partnership with Visa back in April to provide NFC payment solutions for London 2012. For the next Olympic Games, Samsung has developed a mobile app based on Visa's payWave technology. With it, phone owners will be able to make a payment simply by holding their device close to a special reader at a purchase location. For small purchases under 15 pounds ($24 USD), the transaction is conducted automatically. For larger purchases, owners will have to key in their PIN code. The app also lets customers check account balances real-time as well as view their transaction history. For the Olympics and Paralympics, there will be more than 3,000 contactless terminals installed across the games' venues. Samsung has also created a special commemorative phone for the Games. Samsung will be displaying the payment system at MWC next week in Barcelona.
For the Japanese market, Samsung plans to work with FeliCa to develop new NFC-SAM IC mobile wallet chipsets that support both the emerging NFC Type A and Type B standards, which increasingly are being used throughout the world, as well as the FeliCa NFC-F implementation that has been deployed mainly in Japan since 2004. The new chips will also give users advanced security protection. Samsung and FeliCa hope to begin using the new chips sometime next year. [via Engadget]
