At MobileBeat 2011 this week, PayPal announced its own peer-to-peer Near Field Communication (NFC) solution. The company demonstrated an NFC-enabled Android widget that lets people pay and get paid in a matter of seconds by simply tapping together their devices. PayPal plans to release its app on the Android Market later this summer.
PayPal used two Samsung Nexus S phones in its demo. This makes sense as the Nexus was the first Android phone to ship with Android 2.3 (codenamed Gingerbread), which added NFC support to the mobile operating system.
With a simple "buzz" you'll be able to transfer money to friends, family, colleagues, and employees. PayPal says it is seeing staggering growth in PayPal mobile payments, which tells the company there is a real consumer desire for such an app. PayPal argues that consumer behavior won't change unless it is able to offer an experience that's truly better than what's available today.
In the video above, you can see that the app does appear to work quite well. Two months ago, Google announced Google Wallet, but only described how it would work and didn't actually offer a demonstration.
"PayPal is again leading the pack by bringing NFC payments to life on the Android platform," a PayPal spokesperson said in a statement. "But this is just one of the many ways we're using different technologies, on different devices, to change the way people pay and get paid. Stay tuned for more exciting announcements from PayPal in the weeks and months to come as we make our vision for the future of money a reality in everyday life."
Earlier this month, PayPal announced that it has more than 100 million active accounts. Furthermore, the company predicted that by 2015 digital currency will be accepted everywhere in the US – from your local corner store to Walmart. In other words, PayPal declared that in four years you will no longer need to carry a wallet.
https://www.techspot.com/news/44684-paypal-announces-phone-to-phone-nfc-app-for-android.html
