Nokia has announced an exclusive deal with Angry Birds, one of the most popular games on the iPhone and Android mobile platforms.
Angry Birds Free With Magic has 20 levels, but 15 of them can only be unlocked by players using their the Near-Field Communication (NFC) in their phone, either by swiping their phone against another NFC-enabled phone, or against NFC tags in “other objects”.
The game will come preloaded on the new Nokia C7 phone, together with further NFC-enabled Nokia phones later in the year.
So what has this got to do with money?
Well, NFC is seen as a key technology for mobile payments, yet it hasn’t made the mainstream in the West (although it’s already pretty well used in the Far East). There are a couple of issues holding it back; retailers having the technology to accept payments via NFC, and user take-up.
It’s a little bit of a chicken and egg situation, but if the use of NFC can be increased via games, then perhaps that will speed up user acceptance of NFC-powered payments, creating the incentive for retailers to invest in the necessary technology, and finally pushing it into the mainstream.
Here’s Angry Birds Free With Magic in action: