Contactless payments also with mobile phones!

Samsung Galaxy S III is the first mobile phone running Android OS which supports Barclaycard contactless mobile payments with Quick Tap from Orange. So far, the services are available in Great Britain only.
Each owner of any UK Visa or Mastercard debit or credit card and Samsung Galaxy S III from Orange is given a contactless way to pay for purchases 20 GPB and under. By activating the Barclaycard payment app by October 5, 2012, the users got 50 GPB rewards.

The unprecedented growth in sales of smartphones has created a unique opportunity to use their capabilities in the field of non-cash transactions. So the largest software companies are making efforts to support implementations of software solutions in this application segment.

Google has come up with a solution called Google Wallet, which is a typical application for Android system. The users can make payments using virtual versions of their payment, discount, and gift cards. They can also use additional Google Offers at the same time.

The card and transaction information stored on the phone is isolated from potential malware. The payments in shops accepting Google Wallet are made immediately after the phone is moved close to the reader at the point of sale. They use Near Field Communication (NFC) technology - high frequency communication standard for wireless exchange of data over distances up to 20 centimeters.

According to Gartner, the world's leading information technology research and advisory company, we will see rapid development of "mobile" payments. Currently this market is worth $172 billion, but by 2016 it should exceed $600 billion.

In mid-2012, there were 34 million NFC-enabled phones. According to the company estimates, by 2015 every other phone will be equipped with components supporting this technology. Currently, the leading provider of NFC solutions is NXP Semiconductors. NXP chips are installed e.g. in Nexus S supporting Google Wallet, in tablets running Windows 8, and in Sony smartphones.

 

Mobile payments are made by bringing the phone to readers embedded in POS terminals

NFC is a radio technology that enables data exchange with bit rates 106 kbps to 848 kbps, using the carrier frequency of 13.56 MHz. It is based on inductive coupling, where loosely coupled inductive circuits share power and data over a distance of a few centimeters, typically up to 10 cm.
The NFC technology allows two communication modes: active and passive. In active mode both devices participating in the exchange of data emit electromagnetic fields. In passive mode, one device generates electromagnetic field to power the second device (passive), enabling the exchange of information. Examples of passive devices are RFID tags, poster tags, contactless smart cards.