In an article from last Friday, Finextra reports that Google is teaming up with the French terminal manufacturer, Ingenico, to pilot a system whereby consumers can redeem discount/loyalty coupons that they have downloaded on their Android phone with NFC technology at POS.
Finextra, in fact, speculate that Google's much-talked-about NFC trials in NYC and San Francisco will be aimed at testing this system, and not the payments solution that has long been rumoured. They back this up with recently published research from Oracle saying that using multiple NFC read/write apps on a mobile will slow down the process and negate the key benefit of the technology.
Personally, I would be very surprised if this is the case and that Google will not roll out a payments solution shortly. Google has based its business model around organising the world's information and will definitely have recognised the power and value of transactions data.
The discounts and offers that they are working with Ingenico to execute might be what draws the customer to the merchant, but the transactions data is what will enable Google to target those offers. I therefore believe that it is integral to Google's model to deliver both these elements.
http://www.finextra.com/News/Fullstory.aspx?newsitemid=22523
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