Technology has come a long way in the past few years. Smartphones have become the norm, and the Internet is now seamlessly integrated with almost everything we do. But not all burgeoning technologies are welcome with open arms. In fact, many can feel like they're simply being forced upon us. Like contactless payment. It's been around for over a year now and still hasn't really taken off - even in large cities like London and Manchester. Despite this, many smartphone manufacturers are considering including NFC, Near Field Communication, in their future devices to support contactless payment.

A lack of support for contactless payment

While contactless credit cards have been available since 2008, when Barclaycard first released them, the actual usage of the cards has been very low. In fact, recent studies have found that of all the people that have contactless cards in their wallets, only a quarter of these have actually used them. That equates to around 5 percent of the UK population having actually used contactless payment. That's a  low figure in anyone's book - especially for a technology that's been around for more four years. And it's not like UK banks haven't been trying to encourage consumers to try out the new technology, many of them have even begun releasing stickers which have NFC tech built in. The idea is that someone could stick a tag on their phone, then use it to make purchases of up to £20. Unfortunately, convincing security-conscious people that this is a good idea is proving a bit of a tall order. 

Giving UK consumers the hard sell

One of the problems that banks face is that in a world in the depths of recession, people don’t want to spend too much money – meaning they also don’t take well to a new way to spend. NFC tech on our phones will make it easier than ever to spend our hard-earned money, and that’s potentially a reason that the UK just isn’t buying contactless payment - at least not yet.

NFC-enabled phones already on the market

While bank account holders in the UK ignore the contactless payment card offerings of many major banks, there are plenty of smartphone manufacturers that are quickly moving on NFC technology. This may be an international influence, suggesting that contactless adoption has been higher in countries like the United States and Japan. Major handsets such as the Samsung Galaxy S III are already equipped with NFC chips, and - depending on the app used - can already be used to make contactless payments. The BlackBerry Bold 9790 is yet another example of a mobile phone that’s already prepared to make contactless payments. Ironically, the largest smartphone manufacturer in the world – Apple – has yet to include NFC in any of their iPhone models. But with SmartTags and stickers available, this lack of support isn’t stopping Apple fans from using it – if they want to. The problem is, they simply don’t – at least not in the UK.

The future of NFC on mobile phones

It’s very likely that Apple will include Near Field Communication in their next one or two iPhone models. It might be that this will be the step that brings contactless payment to a wider audience. Consumers are already getting used to LTE (or 4G, as it’s being sold) because of the iPhone 5, so it’s not a stretch to think that consumers will follow Apple’s lead.

Contactless payment may be the future, but with such little take-up, banks may have to start asking whether or not it’s worth their time to keep developing the tech in their cards. Perhaps it’s simply too insecure a method to ever take off in the UK.

Author Bio:

Eve Pearce is a contributing writer at Highbrow Magazine.