HTC teams up with Unionpay in China for smartphone with mobile payment capability

By Shane McGlaun/Updated: Aug. 10, 2011 9:23 am EST

HTC and China Unionpay have announced that HTC will have a new smartphone on the Chinese market as early as September that supports mobile payments. Unionpay is the only bankcard processing service in China. HTC and Unionpay have reportedly been working together on the mobile payments for about six months.

HTC notes that the smartphone supporting the payment network has been on the works for about a year now. There are few details on the smartphone itself at this point. Presumably, it will be an Android device. Unionpay may end up pushing the mobile NFC payment system in other countries as well. Apparently, the card processor operates in 120 different countries.

Unionpay mobile payment department general manager Xu Jinyao says that there are already about 400,000 POS machines in China already. That number is expected to increase to 700,000 by the end of the year. Mobile payment use around the world is expected to boom.

[via Android Community]