14 DAY TRIAL // HTC Stunning will be HTC's first smartphone to embed a Near Field Communication (NFC) chip.
The phone will be launched in China some time in September and will support bank card network China UnionPay’s mobile payment standard.
“Mobile phone users no longer have to bring their bank cards in the future, because their smartphones can provide the same function,” Chai Hongfeng, executive vice-president of China UnionPay, said at a news briefing in Shanghai.
Those who are not familiar with the term, the NFC technology allows for more simpler and faster transactions, data exchange, as well as connections with a touch.
For example, a smartphone or tablet with an NFC chip could make a credit card payment or serve as keycard or ID card.
In addition, NFC devices can read NFC tags on a cinema or retail display to get more information or an audio or video presentation.
Obviously, with NFC-enabled devices users will be able to share a contact, photo, song, application, or video or pair Bluetooth devices.
Up until today, Nokia was one of the few handset makers that focused on delivering its handsets with NFC chips, but as the technology spread across the globe other manufacturers decided to include the NFC technology into their mobile phones.
According to China Daily, HTC Stunning was in development for over a year, but HTC is determined to launch the NFC-enabled smartphone next month.
“HTC has been developing the mobile payment handset for more than a year. We cooperated with China UnionPay for merely six months before we introduced the device,” Dennis Chen, head of the Asia and China Enterprise department of HTC Corp.
While information regarding the phone's specs sheet is a little scarce at the moment, we can confirm that the HTC Stunning will be delivered with a large 4-inch capacitive touchscreen display and it will be powered by Google's Android platform.