Credit Cards: soon to become obsolete with the introduction of NFC enabled smartphones

Today, more than 10,000 credit card transactions take place every single second -- and the total value of goods and services purchased with them totals more than euro 1.92 trillion ($2.5 trillion)  per year. But the domination of the plastic credit and debit card might soon be over.

Given that we now use smartphones to do everything from checking the weather to sending emails to watching YouTube videos to getting directions to making restaurant reservations, it only makes sense that we would use them to pay for things, too.

With so-called "near field communication" (NFC) technology we may soon be able to do just that.

This technology allows two NFC-enabled devices placed within a few inches of each other to wirelessly swap data -- meaning you can simply touch your NFC-enabled smartphone to an NFC reader any time you need to pay your bar tab, buy a plane ticket, or even get groceries.

This revolution in payments is already beginning to take shape. In Britain mobile provider Orange has already teamed up with a number of companies including MasterCard and Barclaycard to offer NFC payment options at roughly 50,000 locations around Britain -- including fast-food chains like McDonald's and Subway.

Nokia, Sprint, and Research In Motion are all reported to be working on building NFC-enabled smartphones -- and it is widely rumored that NFC technology may well be a prominent feature of the next iPhone.

Imagine how our daily routines will change if everything works out like the technology's supporters hope it will.

• We'll never have to worry about feeding coins into parking meters or vending machines ever again.
• We won't need tickets to board a train or get into a ball game.
• We won't be asked for our license and registration when we get pulled over, a passport when we cross the border, or an ID when we go to the gym.
• We won't use keys to unlock our cars, our offices, or even our front door.
• Stores and restaurants will no longer give us printed receipts, and business cards will become a thing of the past.

Unfortunately there is one problem with this new technology. What happens to the older folks who can't use a smart phone for a variety of reasons and poor people who can't afford them ? 

EU-Digest