Store and manage tickets, coupons, boarding passes, among other items on smartphones.
South Korean technology company Samsung has announced its rival to Apple's Passbook with Wallet for Android.
As described on the app's API page for developers, Wallet "allows users to store and manage event tickets, boarding passes, membership cards, and coupons all in one place."
The app will allow providers to integrate their apps with Samsung Wallet to allow smartphone users to add their electronic tickets and coupons. Such tickets display bar codes that can then be scanned at terminals. During its demo at the Mobile World Congress today, the firm showcased how an individual could add an electronic airplane ticket coming from a provider such as Lufthansa into the Wallet app.
In similar fashion to iOS 6's Passbook, Wallet utilizes push notifications in order to alert smartphone users when they're in the right location to utilize one of their store coupons or tickets. Users of Samsung's forthcoming app are also able to receive updates to their boarding passes, as well as membership card points.
Wallet, however, doesn't support near-field communications (NFC), which excludes the possibility of mobile tap-to-pay payments. Samsung said it decided to not integrate NFC support, as retailers prefer bar codes, because additional hardware isn't required. That said, the firm didn't completely rule out NFC integration at a later date.
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Can we get those patent trolls to do something useful? Like, you know, patent the idea of work at home scams and sue all the scammers?
What bothers me the most is that most of these spam posts are just for the sake of spam, and not promoting their scam site.
NFC is not a technology I will used unless forced to; to complete transactions.
Going NFC isn't going to get rid of physical currency. If you look at cities like Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, etc who have widely adopted NFC/mobile payment methods, nothing changed except efficiency.
When I visited Seoul, I bought a bus pass like a total noob tourist. When I was riding the bus to my destination, I saw people just bump their butt or bag next to the machine in the bus and it beeped. They didn't even take out their phone to pay with NFC. That is how much mobile payment methods matured in other countries. They don't think twice about it.
Let's face it, this is stil the Wild West out there in Cyberland and no Wyatt Earp or Clint Eastwood type Lawman in sight.
Lets see if i can get free Tickets(GameCIH)
Just Kidding
Hehe /sarcasm