Portable payments By LI WEITAO (China Daily) Updated: 2006-07-10 14:09 According to a recent survey by ACNielson in Shanghai, more than 80 per cent
of respondents hoped to integrate banks cards and smart cards into their mobile
phones.
These expectations could prove particularly beneficial for
companies such as Nokia. "We are ready to introduce more NFC-enabled
mobile phone models," says Joseph Zheng, the director in charge of NFC solutions
in China at Nokia Venture Organization.
Nokia is hoping NFC-enabled
handsets will help spur the replacement market. The introduction of mobile
phones equipped with digital cameras and MP3 players has already sparked an
industry-wide replacement boom in the past. But China's replacement market has
been growing slowly in recent years, due to high penetration in cities and
continued delays in the introduction of the next generation mobile telephony.
So Nokia has been placing big bets on emerging markets in the
countryside, where most people are buying handsets for the first time. But if
the NFC-enabled phones prove popular, it could spur the replacement market in
China's major cities.
Citing a report by market research firm ABI, Zheng
forecast 50 per cent of mobile phones will be enabled with NFC functions by
2009. By 2010, the shipment of NFC phones will hit 500 million
units.
"NFC phones are not just about mobile ticketing and payments. We
can also use these phones as access cards (to offices or homes)," says
Zheng.
Philips and Nokia have already conducted a trial in the
Netherlands that enables supporters of Dutch football club Roda JC to use their
handsets for admittance to the Parkstad Limburg Stadium. Users can also purchase
goods at the stadium's catering outlets and related shops.
The NFC is
based on a radio tag technology known as RFID (radio frequency identification),
which is expected to be one of the next big things in the retail sector. But
unlike RFID, NFC is integrated into mobile phones, which could prove more
convenient and exciting for consumers, says Zheng.
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