According to some reports online, Google has plans to test out an NFC based payment system at stores in New York and San Francisco sometime within the next 4 months. After introducing the capability with the flagship Android phone, the Nexus S, and somewhat expanding the feature with Google Hotspots, NFC pretty much took a backseat role in Android, without even making an appearance on Honeycomb tablets. But it looks like Google is ready to start pushing it again, with rumors of testing out mobile-payment systems in the near future. It’s going to be hard to gauge the success of such a system, seeing how there are barely any NFC-enabled phones available on the market. Hopefully the results of their testing prove fruitful and we’ll see NFC being used a lot more in the future (even though they turn the phones into lucrative targets for thieves – after all who doesn’t want to steal a phone that can be used to buy stuff?). We’ll have to see what kind of security measures Google puts in place.
