Users of Google’s Android and Nokia’s 6212 models will soon be able to receive updates from Visa on its offers and ATM and merchant locations through a software application integrated into the phones.

The credit card giant has said that users could make payments, remote payments and money transfers through the electronic reader. It added that applications currently under development will allow in-store "contactless" payments by Android.

High-tech countries like Japan are already familiar with such technology, but US stores will need more time to provide these services by installing new card readers.

The application will also work with Google Maps and location technology to provide information on special offers in nearby cash machines.

Initially, only users who possess both Android phones and JP Morgan Chase Visa cards can use the application, although it is planned for use in other banks too by the end of next year.

Visa's global head of product development, Tim Attinger, said that while mobile payment services have been slow to take off, the company sees mobile phones as key to adding new customers. Only 1.6 billion Visa cards are in use today, compared with more than three billion people with cell phones.

Meanwhile, HTC is expected  to roll out Google Android-powered phone in India by December end. The price of the Google phone is fixed at $179, $20 less than that of the 3G Iphone. Like the Iphone, the price of Google's Android is likely to be on the higher side in India. X