ABI Research Sees Crucial Contactless Payment Pieces Falling into Place

The recent joint announcement by electronics giant Philips and payment transaction software creator ViVOtech, of a partnership marrying Philips near-field communications (NFC) technologies with ViVOtechs readers and processing software, takes contactless payment one big step closer to reality. Armed with an NFC-equipped mobile phone (or some other device, but all bets are on the phone as top choice), a consumer at a checkout or cashier need only wave it near a reader to have a credit transaction automatically initiated and carried out. ABI Researchs study, Near Field Communications (NFC) enables cellular handset and consumer electronics OEMs, as well as potential end-users, to understand how consumer behavior, loyalty, and spending will change as a result of adding RFID-based NFC digital technology. Except for Japan, where Sonys FeliCa card allows contactless payments in some closed-loop transport systems, all deployments of NFC-based payment until now have been trials only. But, says Michielsen, those trials have produced results that card issuers, banks and merchants love: quicker transactions, 20% more purchases, and a 20%+ lift in value per transaction compared to traditional credit cards.