Phones with credit cards now on sale

09/12/2011

The first Google Android smartphones potentially capable of replacing credit cards at point-of-sale retail terminals have shipped in Australia. A spokesman for Mobicity said pre-orders had been "in their thousands" and the promotion of the Nexus had been "our best pre-order campaign ever". Shipping, while patchy at first, had begun two weeks ago. The unlocked Nexus was selling for $789 with a two-year warranty. Kogan said it had begun shipping the Nexus this week. It cost $799 and had a 12-month warranty. A spokesman would not reveal pre-order numbers.

Secure NFC payments are made possible on the Nexus with "Google Wallet" - a virtual wallet that houses secure credit card details in an electronic form. Kogan and Mobicity have been selling an internationally sourced version of the Nexus.

The official local version of the Nexus by Samsung Australia is not expected to sell in retail stores until around December 20. In Australia, NFC-capable handsets have been thin on the ground. Research In Motion's BlackBerry Bold 9900, which launched in October, and the BlackBerry Curve 9360, which launched last week have been the only Australian distributed handsets that could potentially perform NFC-style retail transactions.

Source: The Australian