Wireless Summit: eZee and NFC
I had a chance to listed to eZee executive Enrique Ortiz and John Sullivan talk about the future of Near Field Communicatiaons (NFC). It’s the technology behind the Speedpass at the gas station, and Wells Fargo’s new mobile payment pilot. You get your device (smart card, cellphone) within a few millimeters of the NFC reader, and it transmits your payment information to the device immediately. No need for a signature, or a PIN number. It’s a cool technology, but according to eZee executives the U.S. is far behind other countries in the adoption of this technology. In fact there are only 2 cellphones on the market right now (both from Nokia) that even have this feature.
According to John Sullivan, the holy grail of feature sets would be to wave your cellphone at the point-of-sale reader, and then choose from a menu on your cellphone how you want to pay for the transaction (credit account, bank account). With a few million of these around, who needs to carry cash anymore?
What I found particularly interesting was the brief yet vague references that Ortiz and Sullivan made regarding the strategic direction of eZee. They mentioned that NFC payments are cool, but there are many companies going after that market. However, they were interested in the ways in which consumers might use e-commerce and NFC together. Sullivan also mentioned that they had great relationships with the big box retailers. Hmmm…..
Filed under: Events
check your facts. BenQ and Kyocera both have NFC cellphones they are testing with technology from a Canadian company.
Google Kyocera and you will see that they just completed a test in the Carolinas.
Dr. Mike
Dr Mike, we are talking about phones available to the *masses* in the U.S. beyond trials and regional networks, and prototype phones (which is what the Kyocera is at this moment).