Mobile wallets open and ready
In-Stat recently released a report stating that as many as 25 million wireless phone subscribers in North America could be using their mobile phones as mobile wallets. Online payments company PayPal recently announced a pay-by-mobile capability that will help the industry get there. However, unlike the mobile wallet technology that allows phones to synchronize with physically immediate point-of-sale systems, PayPal uses its tried and true online transaction platform for “Text to Buy” transactions. Wireless Review looks at how the mobile wallet idea is evolving.
"Clearly, contactless payments are gaining momentum in the industry.”
— Gerry Purdy, principal analyst with MobileTrax
“Moving to NFC is a natural evolution for MobileLime, from both a technology and customer perspective.”
— Robert Wesley, president and CEO of MobileLime
“We showed the video of this service to Prime Minister Koizumi, and he loved it.” NTT DoCoMo CEO Masao Nakamura, on a video shown during his presentation at Wireless 2006 last month that depicted a customer in Japan using a mobile phone to pay various bills
“There are several technologies that could enable mobile wallet operations of handsets, including near field communications (NFC), radio frequency identification (RFID), bar codes and visual recognition. Standardization efforts around NFC may give that system the edge.”
— David Chamberlain, senior analyst with In-Stat
“The promise of mobile commerce has never been better. We just have to make it as easy as possible for consumers to pay for whatever they can imagine buying over their mobile phones from wherever they are.”
— Jeff Jordan, president and CEO, PayPal
