Mobile Phones To Replace Your Wallet

[Mike Temporale]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=5698349&src=rss/technologyNews&section=news' target='_blank'>http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=5698349&src=rss/technologyNews&section=news</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Look inside almost anyone's purse or pocket, and it probably contains at least a mobile phone and a wallet bulging with bills, coins, receipts, credit cards, IDs, train or bus passes and any number of membership cards. In Japan, that may soon be a thing of the past as the mobile industry aims to combine the two with a small embedded chip that can also store money and personal information. NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan's largest mobile operator, on Saturday became the first operator to launch a wallet phone, equipped with Sony Corp.'s FeliCa smart chip, which can be quickly read by passing it over a scanner."</i><br /><br />I'm not sure I like this idea. What happens if your battery runs out? Or you loose your phone? This is a neat idea, but I don't think it will really function very well in the real world.

[Kris Kumar]

Thanks to Smartphones, I don't need to carry a wallet. I have no money or credit cards left to carry in it. Two expensive smartphones in less than a year, plus planning to buy another one in 2-3 months (MPx220). Smartphones have taken a load off my wallet.

:rotfl:

[TANKERx]

I'd be more impressed if my wallet replaced my mobile phone!

[jim s]

This by itself makes me nervous, but the fact that Sony is behind it makes me REALLY nervous!

[Jason Dunn]

I think it makes sense, but we never managed to get vendors to agree on using a single membership card, what makes them think they'll suddenly agree to use a chip in a phone? It's something I'd like to see happen though, that's for sure...wallets suck.

[yslee]

We had a service that let's you pay for certain things (parking etc) via your mobile phone (which is then charged to your phone bill), but it was pretty much a failure. One of the pioneering customers switched to a cashcard system in the end.

[Chafic]

I think it is a neat idea. As it is right now, all the information is kept on the magnetic strip of the credit cards and so on. Credit card companies have to a large extent standardized the numbering scheme etc....
Losing it would be no different than losing your wallet or purse. In fact it has the potential of being safer if some kind of authentication is required when you launch the application for instance as opposed to someone finding your credit card and being able to use it immediatly.