Due to the ease and convenience that credit and debit cards have brought to consumer chopping, many people eschew carrying cash as a result. On the horizon now is a new technology that could end up replacing debit and credit cards, and Google officials have recently stated that their new Android smartphone Operating System could end up even replacing those little pieces of plastic that so many of us use to make our purchases in coffee shops, High street stores, and other retailers.
Smartphone adoption rate has been growing across the globe lately, and with the newest version of Google Android’s OS (code-named Gingerbread) having a Tap and Pay feature hardwired into it, the new feature will allow smartphone owners to brush their Gingerbread-equipped phone up against a specialised reader to make their purchases instead of fishing a credit card from their wallet.
Google chief executive Eric Schmidt recently demonstrated the new technology in San Francisco. During the demonstration Mr Schmidt announced that Google was currently developing a device that made use of Near Field Communications technology, which is what drives the Tap and Play functionality. Ensuring that secure credit card details are transmitted between reader and smartphone, the technology is already in use for some specialised credit and debit cards that operate without the need of a signature or a PIN.
One Google official stated that while many may be cautious about adopting the new technology, which could result in a slow uptake of smartphones enabled with the tap and play system, he was confident that in all likelihood the new, more convenient way of doing things will undoubtedly catch on.
The official also stated that the rate of pick up in consumers will suffer from the natural hesitancy of consumers to try something new and revolutionary.