April 03, 2007
Surge of Cashless NFC Vending Machines
NFC, or Near Field Communication, is a technology that's been in use in Asia and Europe for a few years, allowing consumers with appropriate NFC-enabled cell phones to pay for all manner of self-payment purchases, such as bus fares and movie tickets, or for items from vending machines.
To date, that hasn't really been the case in North America. However, MasterCard and USA Technologies are in the process of pushing out 6,000 vending machines in over twenty American cities. Customers can use an NFC phone for purchases, thanks to the new e-Port technology from USA Technologies.
One thing I see holding back the popularity of such vending machines is the lack of NFC phones, though Nokia is making progress in that regard. Still, ABI Research said back in 2004 that by 2009, about 50% of all cell phones would have NFC. What remains is to see whether consumers become comfortable using such a payment method.
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