Google Inc. is expected to reveal details about how customers will be able to make store purchases, redeem vouchers, and get loyalty points by only waving their smartphones in front of a small reader at the checkout counter.
Bloomberg News reported that Google’s announcement is planned for Thursday. The web-search company is preparing to show off revolutionary technology, called “Near Field Communication”, which is embedded in newer smartphones powered by Google’s Android software, and that can help turn the devices into a kind of electronic wallet, according to western media reports.
A mobile payments company, Square, Inc., that offers free hardware to businesses for mobile phone transactions, has introduced apparently a new software aiming at making consumers’ mobile phones their main method of payment.
The program will launch first in the U.S., followed by a broader rollout. Participating retail merchants are said to include from the start American Eagle Outfitters Inc. and the Subway fast-food chain, both already operating in Dubai. Retailers who participate in the program will have upgraded terminals at the point of sale that can read the mobile devices and provide special offers.
The new Google payments’ platform will allow software developers to create new mobile applications, or apps, which take advantage of the technology.
The system will help Google boost its digital advertising business.
Google has already teamed up with smartphone maker Samsung Electronics Co. to embed NFC technology into phones that use Google’s Android software, while other hardware makers have said they would follow.
Mobile application development is the process by which application software is developed for small low-power handheld devices such as personal digital assistants, enterprise digital assistants or mobile phones. These applications are either pre-installed on phones during manufacture, or downloaded by customers from various mobile software distribution platforms.
