NFC or Near Field Communication, has been catching a lot of heat. There are ventures by groups like BlackBerry and Bank of America or Google and MasterCard that are working on NFC solutions. So what is NFC? Its a way of electronically transmitting data (payment information in this case) to a receiver or the POS (Point of Sale) system used in stores.
It is true that our smart phones are taking care of our lives by providing networking, connectivity and convenience at our palms. It is the device of the future that holds our life, right from personal data to important work documents. The next step is replacing our wallets. Google seems to be taking a major step with its new offering of Google wallet.
Google wallet is an upcoming service that will allow Android users to make payments at stores using its app. The payment information will be stored in the Android app and will be transmitted to the POS system at stores. At launch, it will only support Citibank MasterCards and will be limited to select Android phones, but this is a great step forward and we will be seeing many more services making use of NFC.
For more information on Google wallet, click here.