Telecoms Tech

A limited edition model of the Samsung Galaxy S3 will utilise Visa’s payment app, Visa payWave, and be used by athletes and selected partners for the duration of the Olympics.

Visa and Samsung jointly announced the deal making it possible for privileged users to make transactions instantly at “thousands of retail locations throughout London”.

Any transaction of over £20 will require the user to input a passcode.

The move implements near field communication (NFC) technology which allows devices to communicate with each other in close proximity. A report from Juniper Research predicting that one in five devices will have NFC technology by 2014.

Even though NFC was developed as far back as 2002, it is only with the advent of smartphones that the technology has been fully harnessed.

Samsung and Visa will both hope this will enable instant mobile payments to become more commonplace, with the Olympic Games being seen as the perfect opportunity to push the platform.

DJ Lee, executive vice president of Samsung’s Mobile Communications Business, said: “The Samsung Galaxy S3 is the ideal device to showcase the ease and convenience of Visa’s mobile payment application at the London 2012 Olympic Games”.

Sandra Alzetta, senior vice president of mobile at Visa Europe, said that this will “fundamentally change the way we pay”.

“The future is mobile and cash usage will only continue to decline as people use their mobile devices to manage their money, shop and pay,” she said.

Samsung introduced the Galaxy S3 last week at Earls Court in London, claiming that their new product had an improved ergonomic design “able to recognise your voice and understand your intention”.

The S3 also features an HD 4.8 inch display, an Android operating system and an 8MP camera.