Visa Tests iPhone ‘iWallet’ System in Europe

Computerworld reports that Visa Europe has started testing an iPhone ‘iWallet’ system. With rumours of Apple implementing Near Field Communication (NFC) in the next iPhone, this brings to mind that mobile wallets are coming sooner than we think. Here’s how the system works:

Visa Europe’s in-testing iPhone payment system requires users employ an add-on device in order to make a payment. In this case the trial is seeing a local bank and Turkey’s biggest mobile carrier working together, the report explains.

Visa introduced an NFC certification programme in December. In the UK, Visa continues to test NFC-based payment systems at its London offices.

iPhone users seem the right place to start, with Visa’s survey of 4,200 people in four European countries confirming 57 percent of iPhone userrs would ‘definetely’ or ‘probably’ use Visa’s mobile payment system on their device.

Back in May of 2010, Visa announced that they would be teaming up with DeviceFidelity to implement NFC mobile payments on the iPhone. It looks like things are now gearing up with their tests in Europe.

Could NFC payments take the next iPhone to a whole new level?

[NFCworld, Computerworld]