Google chief executive Eric Schmidt gave gadget fans a rush today when he showed off an uannounced Android phone with a cool new mobile communications technology. Dubbed near-field communications, the technology lets you wave a cell phone over a reader and use your phone to pay for something.

Near-field communications chips are built into Japanese cell phones. But the technology has been very slow to take off in the U.S. Part of the reason is that so many merchant locations have traditional credit card readers in place and are loathe to upgrade the 1970s technology without a clear benefit.

Schmidt made the announcement in an opening talk with John Battelle and Tim O&'Reilly at the Web 2.0 Summit today in San Francisco.

The fact that the upcoming Google Android phone, which will be made and sold by unnamed Google partners, has near-field communications built into it shows that the chicken-and-egg problem may be overcome soon. After all, a phone maker wouldn&'t add the unnecessary cost of the near-field communications chips if it felt there wouldn&'t be any readers around to read them.

Schmidt said that the new phone would run the upcoming Gingerbread version of the Android operating system. Asked when Gingerbread would arrive, Schmidt said a few weeks. Various bloggers have wondered if the phone Schmidt held up was the long-awaited Nexus S, the foll0w-up to the Nexus One phone. Schmidt would only say that the company did not plan to do a Nexus Two phone.

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Tags: near field communications

Companies: Google

People: Eric Schmidt, John Battelle, Tim OReilly

Tags: near field communications

Companies: Google

People: Eric Schmidt, John Battelle, Tim OReilly

Dean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

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