Near Field Communication (NFC) isn’t that new to the tech space, but has been quite slow on the uptake in the mobile space. However apparently MasterCard has now certified their PayPass for use on mobile devices with Samsung, Nokia, BlackBerry, Sony, Intel, LG and HTC.
According to the guys over at Computer Weekly, PayPass enables users to make touch payments using their handset with cash coming straight out of the bank, and some of the above mobile phone makers will now have ‘MasterCard PayPass Ready’ branding to let customers know they can use the NFC payment system.
Apparently the first two platforms that have signed up for the MasterCard PayPass are Research In Motion and Nokia, and apparently a minimum of four BlackBerry devices have passed the tests and are the BlackBerry Bold 9790, BlackBerry Bold 9900, BlackBerry Curve 9380 and BlackBerry Curve 9360.
Other devices that have also passed the test include the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the Sony Xperia S and the HTC One X, with MasterCard working with standard bodies such as the NFC Forum and EMVCo to make sure the tests were rigorous enough.
The group exec at MasterCard, Mung Ki Woo says that millions of phones will ship with NFC tech in the future, and the new PayPass identifier will enable users to make an informed purchasing decision by providing a visual mark that shows a device is certified to make secure payments.
So there you go, it would appear that finally NFC payments are making leaps in the mobile space, but do you trust NFC payment tech enough to use it?