Orange to launch more QuickTap phones in 'near future'

Barclaycard and Orange have told TechRadar they've overcome the issues with enabling contactless payment on a wider range of handsets.

The likes of the Tocco and the Wave 578 are available with Quick Tap on board – Orange's contactless payment system for phones – but despite growing NFC implementation there have been no Android handsets as yet.

This is down to unforeseen complexities with Google's OS, meaning the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S2 (which was announced as coming with QuickTap) are still yet to appear, according to John Conlon, head of future propositions - digital payments for Barclaycard:

"It's taken a bit longer to get [phones such as the Galaxy S2] Quick Tap-enabled because of the Android OS.

"There's a lot to get right there, and then you have the S2, the S3, then others come along – but it is coming.

"It's just the complexity of the security, to make sure the secure element (within the SIM) and the platform work correctly together."

True facts

An Orange spokesperson confirmed this to TechRadar, stating: "the team are working on bringing the [Quick Tap] service to a range of handsets which includes offering it on Android – so you can expect it to be on more handsets in the near future."

Conlon also pointed out that the benefits of using a phone for contactless payments meant that Barclaycard was changing the way it dealt with lost cards:

"If you lose your phone, you just call Orange and they put phone on hold. But if you lose a card, then the customer calls us and we have to kill the account. But with QuickTap we've changed the system so it all goes on hold, which means we don't have to reissue a new SIM, to make it easier for the consumer."