We already have designer phones, but phones made for special occasions is a pretty novel concept. Yet, that's precisely what Samsung and VISA will be doing, creating an NFC-enabled phone which is to appear in time for the London Olympics 2012.
The goal is evidently to promote mobile payments via the embedded NFC chip, and VISA says the phone will work at 160 000 of its terminals in Europe, 70 000 of which are in shops and pubs in the UK. Sandra Alzetta from VISA has been caught on tape to title the upcoming Samsung device "iconic", so it probably will be a high-end handset, and it is also said to sport dedicated Olympic content preloaded.
It's not exactly clear if this will be an Android or bada device, as Samsung is putting NFC chips in both, but it will be an interesting experiment regardless. VISA also says it is prepping microSD cards with NFC connectivity to spearhead the mass market adoption of mobile payments. Knowing how big the payment processing company is, this might be the best shot mobile payments have to take off.
Judging by the picture from VISA's presentation, the Samsung Olympics 2012 phone will be available globally in the first quarter of next year.
Daniel, a devoted tech writer at PhoneArena since 2010, has been engrossed in mobile technology since the Windows Mobile era. His expertise spans mobile hardware, software, and carrier networks, and he's keenly interested in the future of digital health, car connectivity, and 5G. Beyond his professional pursuits, Daniel finds balance in travel, reading, and exploring new tech innovations, while contemplating the ethical and privacy implications of our digital future.
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