NFC Stickers can be applied to smart phones to enable Google Wallet.

An interesting snippet announced today regarding NFC stickers, at Google’s unveiling of its Google Wallet and Google Offers products. Osama Bedier, VP of Payments for Google, during the Q&A session hinted that it would be theoretically possible to add NFC stickers to the back of an existing Android phone. He was vague at best and didn’t expand on whether Google had a solution to match. Such a sticker would allow any existing Android to use NFC features associated with Google Wallet and mobile payments.

Beidier did, however, say that the experience would be limited compared to using an NFC equipped droid. Any usability is good news as the only phone currently available in the U.S. of A that does house an NFC chip is Google’s own Nexus S.

Google is anticipating a lot of interest in Google Wallet so where are the NFC stickers?

Google predicted a surge of interest in “contactless payments” and yet the current marketplace is garishly sparse when it comes to NFC equipped handsets. So sparse, in fact, that launch partner Sprint said on stage that it would like to work with HTC, LG and Motorola. That insinuates it’s not currently working with any of the aforementioned companies. Other products may take a little while to get to market and this would not allow Google to fully capitalize on the advantage it currently has of being first to market. Google needs mass adoption to diminish the chances of Isis or Apple or any other would-be competitor from taking its thunder and to consolidate its dominance. So where are our NFC stickers?

Asia already has NFC stickers on mobile phones

NFC stickers are not new and, in fact, have been used in Japan for a while. Stickers currently cost around $36 in Japan, but with NFC’s prevalence and demand about to explode these costs should come down. Even at $36 an NFC sticker represents a massive cost saving over a new phone and contract, or paying yourself out of your current agreement even if you don’t get all of that sweet Google Wallet goodness. So today’s lesson: NFC stickers are not only possible but are already working in other parts of the world. Now we just need Google to throw us a bone and make an NFC Sticker available to us mere mortals.