"NTT DoCoMo: VISION 2010" circa 2003 (but not by DoCoMo)

In DoCoMo's video from "NTT DoCoMo: VISION 2010" you can see a person using a credit card sized device that communicates wirelessly (from within a few feet) with a POS. The person (an elderly lady impersonating a consumer, pays for her purchase with this device, selecting the form of payment from the device, presumably while using some security feature (a PIN? a fingerprint?), without the need to type or enter anything into the POS, or give the cashier a card.



Interesting but if you want it "now" check the following picture (circa 2003). It has WLAN, battery, display, buttons and it is credit card sized, albeit a bit thicker (~14mm) since it was built with off-the-self components. It will scan for available Points of Sale (a POS is accessible through a Access Point or it has a AP attached to it) , connect to the one that the consumer chooses and the consumer can make a payment (the whole wireless environment is "open" at the transport layer). A payment takes less than 15 seconds (the consumer types a PIN; security does not rely on the PIN only, of course).



The whole concept will work with a WLAN-capable mobile too.

Good summary of various wireless wallet efforts

This article is a good summary of various wireless wallet efforts worldwide and in the US.

Google gearing for mobile payments?

A couple of interesting Google hiring ads

• Mobile Wireless Application Developer
• Risk Analyst

maybe Google is doing a downloadable app for mobile phones, for mobile payments.

PayPal in China

See Muscle-flexing by China Mobile; PayPal due to arrive

Since they already have a competitor in China, maybe they would be interested in getting a leg up on the competition, such as: AliPay, which is a company owned by Alibaba (funny name ... I know), which has some interesting investors (e.g., Softbank, see Softbank board members )

KDDI Announces EZ-Felica Wallet Cell Phone Service

From Wireless Watch again ...

WWJ Viewpoint :: New Tech & Services
WWJ Editors, 11 July 2005
Fresh off the newswire [press release in Japanese], KDDI has just announced that they are set to roll out wallet enabled handsets for their new "EZ-Felica" campaign scheduled to hit the Ginza sometime this September. According to the company, they are street testing the new BREW based application program which will offer digital cash, and various membership services such as loyalty points for registered users. But Wait.. thats not all, at the same time they also announced today (me-thinks those PR folks missed out on the Tanabata Festival this weekend) that from January 2006 KDDI will enable customers to use "Mobility Suica" in partnership with East Japan Railway Company (JR) as well. Wow.. it seems like only yesterday, actually it was December 2003, we reported "KDDI Joins FeliCa Bandwagon".

Note that "new BREW based application program which will offer digital cash, and various membership services such as loyalty points for registered users", i.e., a downloadable application.

Here is the press release press release and a rought translation in English rough translation into English

Yahoo launches cell phone shopping in Japan

Yahoo cell phone shopping in Japan

The last paragraph reads:
"Satisfaction levels with online shopping are much lower among cell phone users, with ease of use and security among the biggest complaints"

Also, with Google entering the payment market, Yahoo might want to re-visit the issue.

Japan Ready to Launch Cellphone P2P Digital Cash

from Wireless Watch

WWJ Editors, 7 July 2005
bitWallet Ltd., the company that manages digital cash service Edy (Euro-Dollar-Yen), just announced [Press Release in Japanese] that they will launch their new service called "Edy to Edy" on Wednesday, July 20. According to their statement "the value of Edy can be sent only by the Edy number, the mail address or the telephone number, it is thought that the payment for net auction, personal gifts or adjustment and congratulation can be used more conveniently". A minimum transfer fee of 50yen will be charged for each transaction plus (Aha!) the govt's standard 5% consumption tax, the maximum amount per transfer is limited to 50,000yen. P2P transactions between individual handsets has, until now, not been possible in Japan

The related press release is here http://www.edy.jp/press/html/050706.html and a very rough translation of it into English is available in PDF (for the non-Japanese speakers) by sending e-mail to Y.

BitWallet is the company and Edy is the product solution.

Future Calling

Another pointer sent by our friend J.E.

FUTURE CALLING: "Cell phones promise to make life easier by giving consumers a wide-range of possibilities."

Will That Be Cash, Credit, Or Cell?

From our friend J.E.

Will That Be Cash, Credit, Or Cell?
Finally, the technology is at hand to turn phones into virtual wallets

Welcome

If you know why you are here, please go on ...