It could take four to six years for widespread deployment of NFC at the retail point of sale, but the technology needs to become more than just a “form-factor change” from cards, said Dan Schulman, group president, Enterprise Growth, at American Express.
Schulman, who is charged with expanding American Express’ traditional credit card business into mobile and other channels, added that the jury is still out as to whether NFC will become ubiquitous at the retail point of sale. NFC has an inside track but has fallen a bit behind cloud-based technologies in the latest industry buzz over which technologies will lead the industry into the new era of commerce.
Schulman, made the comments about NFC during a keynote at the Open Mobile Summit in London this week, in which he sounded themes he's discussed before–about the fundamental changes the smartphone and data analytics will bring to the retail-shopping experience. Offline and online transactions, m-commerce and e-commerce, will all merge into what Schulman calls “digital commerce.”
