Samsung, Visa, NFC Team Up For 2012 Olympics Phone

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Back in April, our own J. Angelo Racoma brought you the story of the 2012 Olympic Games about to get an NFC payment system so that the various athletes and spectators wouldn’t have to tote cash around and could pay for stuff throughout London. But now, things have just gotten a little more interesting, with Samsung and Visa, along with NFC, coming together to bring out a NFC phone specifically for the event.

While the exact specifications of the device are still somewhat unclear, the early word suggests that it’s going to boast “special Olympic content”, and will be made available before and after–as well as during–the Olympics themselves, and that the phone will work with fully 160,000 terminals throughout Europe, 70,000 of which are found in the UK.

There are still plenty of other blanks about this device that have yet to get filled in, though, like what kind of camera it would pack (a near-certainty, especially for a device being released around the 2012 Olympic Games, which people will no doubt want to endlessly photograph for posterity and their own connection to same), and what kind of operating system it will pack, but one thing’s for sure: an event like this is a serious opportunity for Samsung to shine.

Some have even theorized that this might be just the angle Samsung has been waiting for to wheel out a proper Bada device to a much, much larger stage than previously imagined, and this is an idea that’s not without merit. After all, we know that Samsung’s been somewhat chafing under Android, between Google’s Motorola connections and the recent licensing fracas with Microsoft. So Samsung taking the opportunity, while it’s on the world stage with the Olympics, to put the Bada OS in a whole different light makes quite a bit of sense.

But what do you guys think about this? Will Samsung take the opportunity it’s been presented? Or will we see another Android phone at the 2012 Olympic Games? Either way, we want to hear from you, so hit the comments section and tell us what you think!