The announcement from Eric Schmidt of Google about Near Field Communication being in the next Android phones is a major event in the history of Online Banking and Mobile phones in the United States. It will trigger a revolution of new services and capabilities not only in the payment industry but in ways that we can't even imagine yet.
Even more exciting is the announcement by Verizon,AT&T,Mobile have already announced plans for a new mobile commerce network (ISIS) with Discover Financial Services. This means that the infrastructure will get built. While some predict adoption in the US will be slow, even decades I believe this will occur faster than predicted.
My opinion is NFC in phones is a technology tipping point. New features and capabilities for non payment services will begin to appear and innovation will drive this faster then anticipated. There are already demonstrations on opening your hotel door with NFC on your phone. This just scratches the surface of what is to come.
This is the next revolution in context aware computing and augmented reality that will change what mobile devices can do for us. The idea of walking around with a device that understands your desires and needs and provides valuable information and awareness for you. And not just a discount coupon for coffee when you are near a Starbucks. More like knowing that some of your friends are having lunch right next store or reminding you of your anniversary when you pass a flower shop or that your clothes are ready at the dry cleaners. NFC plays well into this experience.
As far as how this all ties into online banking I see it changing the industry in a couple of ways. First, as an influencer, because it will drive the mobile market to more popularity and therefore more people will bank using their mobile device. Mobile banking is already growing faster than web based by a large margin. USAA has over 1M mobile users and BOA over 4M. Banks looking to differentiate their products can innovate in this space to get new customers.
Second in the possibility of new services and features that banks will be able to provide using NFC. Not just in payments but other services they can dream up.
New commerce networks like ISIS open up the market to new players in the industry instead of just VISA, MAC and AMEX. What will PayPal do? Apple, Blackberry, Microsoft are surely working on NFC announcements as well. One thing for sure is that this announcement by Google will trigger a tipping point and a lot of new momentum to finally start bringing change in the US market which is behind the rest of the world when it comes to mobile. it will be exciting to see what comes out. Look for a string of new and constant announcements from here on out.
The best part about new technology when it comes out is the ideas that others think of on new ways to use it. That's what tipping points are all about.
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