South Koreans will soon be able to make purchases with nothing but their phone as KT introduced the country’s first NFC (Near Field Communication)-enabled device – Samsung SHW-A170K, which uses NFC compatible USIM.
The new contactless card will allow folks to buy such items as tickets, gift cards and food, with companies like GS Caltex, Lotte, Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin Robbins announcing their support for NFC payments.
Specs wise, Samsung’s baby is an all-touchscreen phone, sporting a 3-inch WQVGA display, 3-megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS and of course (for South Korean mobile market), a T-DMB mobile TV receiver. Pricing was not unveiled but something tells me we’re not talking about a super-expensive piece of technology here.
Now I wonder whether South Koreans will jump on board and embrace NFC payments as fast as mobile TV, which is still a niche market in every other corner around the world except for Japan and South Korea. Something tells me they will “go NFC,” though I may be wrong. We’ll see…
[Via: SamsungHub]