Visa & Samsung Partner For NFC Deal: Galaxy S4 Could Be First Smartphone With The New Feature

NFC (Near Field Communication) is gaining enough popularity, but it may not be swift for many consumers. NFC is a technology that has struggled to gain traction. Many companies have been interested in developing NFC as a commerce tool and as an alternative to credit cards.

If Visa's Mobile Provisioning Service gains enough traction it could provide the launchpad for the NFC revolution, though the service debuted a year ago at MWC 2012. May be, the NFC feature could gain more and more popularity as an initiative taken by Samsung and Visa.

Visa has announced its first partners for its new NFC initiative, which is oriented to push the feature wider into the world of mobile payments. Visa has named Samsung as its first global NFC partner and ROAM, owned by Ingenico as its first mobile payment partner for Visa Ready program.

The Samsung deal is potentially a significant step towards making NFC-based mobile payments more commonplace for more people. This way, Samsung will embed Visa's NFC software in a range of devices including smartphones and tablets.

Click here for Galaxy S4 concept images....

Click here for Galaxy S4 concept images....

Won-Pyo Hong, president of Samsung's Media Solution Center said, "The partnership with Visa represents a step towards a global mobile payment platform. We believe that we have a strong value proposition for financial institutions that will ultimately allow consumer choice in NFC payments."

Though the announcement does not mention what the next-generation Samsung device is, but considering the timing of the deal, it tips the that Visa is talking about the Galaxy S4, which will be announced at an event in New York on March 14.

The agreement gives Samsung access to Visa's PayWave system, which lets users to load the credit card information and pay for stuff by tapping the smartphone on a special pad.

At the same time, Jim McCarthy, global head of product, Visa Inc. said, "Samsung devices enabled with Visa payment functionality will no doubt be a powerful product offering - especially in markets where paying with a mobile device is becoming commonplace. However, the key to making mobile payments broadly available all over the world is to offer financial institutions a secure way to provision millions of smartphones with payment account information - and that is exactly what Visa and Samsung are ready to deliver."