…so says Nokia.
The statement is based on the results of a trial run between a number of parties, including the aforementioned Finnish vendor, O2, London Underground, and Barclays. In the “O2 wallet” trial, users carried an NFC-equipped Nokia 6131 mobile, which was able to make payments much as an Oyster card (season pass for London Underground) would do. It was also able to make retail payments using “Barclaycard Visa payWave” in certain stores – and all via the magic of contactless (NFC) technology.
NFC relies on inductance to create a current that is then passed through a chip in (typically) a plastic card, but in this case, a mobile device. The technology has long been around in Japan with Sonys Felica system, however, this trial of 500 people reasonably proves the demand over here.
- 78% said they would be interested in using contactless services if available. Convenience, ease-of-use and the status of having such an innovative device were seen as the main benefits
- Interest in having Oyster on their mobile phones was particularly strong with 89% of trialists saying they were interested in taking this up
- Over two-thirds of trialists also said that they would be interested in having the Barclaycard Visa payWave feature on their mobile in the future
All sounds good to me – give all the upcoming Nokia devices some form of NFC, and you never know, this idea might just develop the critical mass it needs to go mainstream!
You can read the full Nokia PR here.