Card.io now available on Android

When it comes to making purchases on our smartphones, sometimes keying in the credit card details can be quite cumbersome due to the nature of on-screen keyboards, which can cause you to backspace multiple times. Apart from mobile payment solutions such as Google Wallet, there are alternatives such as Card.io.

For those unfamiliar, Card.io is an app on iOS that allows the user to scan their credit card details simply by launching the camera application, holding their credit card up and letting the app do scan the details and delivering the information to third-party merchants. Android users unfortunately have been left out of the loop, at least until now. The SDK for Card.io for Android has recently been published. If you want to check out the SDK in action, you can download the app from the Android Market which serves purely as a demonstration.

Card.io is claiming that at the moment, more than 750 developers are using their technology, and for those concerned about security, it seems that Card.io uses 128-bit SSL and does not save your credit card details or the image. With Card.io now available for Android, could it be a possible alternative/competitor for Google Wallet?