Don't You Want NFC on Your Smartphone?

[Jeff Campbell]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.tuaw.com/2011/06/17/more-iphone-than-android-owners-want-mobile-wallets/' target='_blank'>http://www.tuaw.com/2011/06/17/more...mobile-wallets/</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Google may have beaten Apple to NFC, but a recent survey reveals that only 24% of Android users are actually interested in using the technology to make purchases. iPhone owners are still waiting for an NFC-enabled model, but 40% can't wait to pay in a store using their phone."</em></p><p><img height="445" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1308374385.usr105634.jpg" style="margin-left: 70px; margin-right: 70px;" width="460" /></p><p>I'm one of those 40%. However 70% of the 1,000 people surveyed have no interest in mobile wallets, or they don't even understand what that means. All I know is I can't wait until I can use my iPhone to pay for more than Starbucks coffee. How about you, are you chomping at the bit to get NFC and mobile payment ability or is it something you have little interest in?</p>

[Sven Johannsen]

Doesn't excite me. Scares me actually. Guess it depends a bit on how this is implemented. Just hold it up and it charges whatever has been scanned at checkout, to me? How does it know it's me, a PIN that I have to enter? To what account does it charge to? Just one? Do I have to select? If there is some degree of security involved, not sure how this is much better than swipping a CC and entering a PIN. I found it fun to use my iPhone for the Starbucks purchase, once or twice. After that it was just as fast to get out my Starbucks card, and certainly easier at the drive through. Wasn't handing them my phone.

Just seems like a gimmick to me. Guess I wouldn't mind a CC like thing with NFC that could be programed with various accounts that would be related to where I'm buying stuff. I would still want at least a PIN to prevent easy use if it is lost/misplaced. I have proximity cards to access my office now, so I just have to hold the card up, but I still need a PIN to get in, just not to get out. So it is more convinient than swipping, but just a little.