HP, the new owner of Palm, is said to be considering building Near Field Communications (NFC)-toting mobile handsets that could be on the market by the end of the year.
Bloomberg reports that two people "familiar with the company's plans" have said that HP is interested in developing phones and tablets that can make contactless payments using NFC.
It comes as no huge surprise that a phone manufacturer is looking to get in on the next big thing in mobile technology.
Neatly Folded Cats
NFC in phones has been around for several years, but didn't really take off in the smartphone sphere until Google announced that its flagship Android handset, the Google Nexus S, incorporates an NFC chip.
Since then, phone makers have been scrabbling to add the functionality to new handsets; with the marketing might of Google behind them, NFC payments using a mobile phone could really take off.
It hasn't quite yet, with Google trialling Google Wallet in just a handful of US cities and the UK only able to use NFC to buy a coffee at specific retailers using a specific phone on a specific network for a specific price (under £15) so far.
Apple is also heavily rumoured to be getting in on the NFC act with an upcoming iPhone, although whether that will be the iPhone 5 or the following iteration remains to be seen.
Via BusinessWeek
