Samsung Galaxy S III Olympic Phone To Ship With Visa PayWave

Samsung and Visa have announced that a limited edition version of the Samsung Galaxy S III will be able to make Near Field Communcation (NFC) payments using Visa PayWave.

The smartphone has been named as Samsung’s Olympic Games phone and will ship with Visa’s mobile payment application, enabling athletes sponsored by the companies to make contactless payments at retail locations during the games.

Non-contact sport

To make a payment using the device, users tap the Visa icon on their phone and hold it up to a contactless payment terminal. Purchases which total more than £20 will require a passcode and the app also lets users check their history and view their account balance.

When the Games begin in July, there will be more than 140,000 contactless terminals in the UK, including in taxis, retailers and the Olympic park itself, according to some estimates.

“Mobile payment services enabled by NFC technology are gaining momentum around the world,” said DJ Lee, executive vice president and head of sales and marketing at Samsung Mobile. “The Samsung Galaxy S III has been created with our human needs and capabilities in mind and is the ideal device to showcase the ease and convenience of Visa’s mobile payment application at the London 2012 Olympic Games.”

“Mobile technology has long been a revolutionary force in our lives and NFC-enabled devices such as the Galaxy S III will fundamentally change the way we pay,” added Sandra Alzetta, senior vice president of mobile at Visa Europe. “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.”

Samsung showed off its new flagship smartphone last week at an event in London, revealing a number of functions that are designed to make it easier and more intuitive to use. The Galaxy S III is powered by version 4.0 of Android. Ice Cream Sandwich, and boasts a quad-core processor, facial and voice recognition technology as well as support for Long Term Evolution (LTE) connectivity in countries which have such a network.

In addition to the partnership with Samsung, Visa has also worked with Barclaycard to bring contactless payment to the O2 in London, which is a venue for this summer’s Games.

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