Google has show a new Android phone that eliminates the need to carry a credit card, however CEO Eric Schmidt has failed to explain what you are suppose to do if the phones battery goes flat.
Showing off the new phone in the USA at the opening this year’s Web 2.0 Summit Schmidt said that the device will contain a chip that will allow people to make payments via their handsets.
The device has a Near Field Communication chip, that will allow people to use their phones like credit cards. It will also take advantage of technology found in the latest version of Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) which is due to be released later this month.
“This could replace your credit card,” Schmidt said. “The reason this NFC chip is so interesting is because the credit card industry thinks the loss rate is going to be much better, they’re just more secure.”
The UK Daily Telegraph said that users will need both a phone with an NFC chip and Android’s Gingerbread operating system in order to activate the technology. The near field communication technology allows people to tap their phones on a symbol or an item in the real world to make an action happen, such as a payment. Schmidt said it will it will allow people to “tap and pay”.
Schmidt stressed that Google had no alliances with any retailers and those relationships would be put in place by the credit card companies and retailers independent of the search giant. Instead Google will partner with third party payment processors.
He also said that Google would not retain any personal data obtained through credit card transactions via the phone.
