Android Smartphones to Become Big Fat Credit Cards

“Will Android smartphones finally bring m-commerce to America?
Contactless payment technologies have been around for years, and
buying goods with cellphones is commonplace in some parts of the
world, but in the U.S., e-wallets haven’t caught on. Android’s
upcoming Gingerbread OS update may change that. “This mode of
payment has been crying out for more enabled devices,” said Nitesh
Patel, a senior analyst at Strategy Analytics.

“Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) will enable contactless shopping with a
smartphone in its Android 2.3 “Gingerbread” operating system, which
is due to be released in a few weeks, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said
Monday at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.

“In a discussion about new features Google is working on,
Schmidt mentioned the inclusion of a special chip that could
replace a credit card when consumers pay for goods and
services.”

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