NEWS
Mobile phones will be the payment method of choice for 50 million consumers worldwide by the next decade.
According to a report from Juniper research, near field communications (NFC) applications built into mobiles will be used to pay for everyday goods and services - driving the global market up to $11.5bn by 2011.
silicon.com Retail & Leisure
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Already in the UK, a number of plastic 'wave and pay' cards have been introduced this year and a mobile banking service from Monilink will be pushed in 2008. But Juniper senior analyst Alan Goode believes the majority of those 50 million mobile payment users will be in Japan, South Korea and the US, where NFC payments are already much better established.
Goode said: "In the UK, we see signs that NFC will be widely available. Looking at things like transport hubs, the infrastructure is in place."
He told silicon.com the main reason for consumers to adopt mobile phone payments - rather than a plastic card - is that applications can be combined, making phone payments more compelling. There will be an opportunity for an account balance to be shown before the payment is made, making sure the spender does not go overdrawn, and for vouchers and incentives to be redeemed alongside the purchase, for example.
Comments
There are 5 comments. Join the discussion
1. Karen Challinor
until it gets hacked then you won't even have to be on the same continent to relieve someone of their money
who comes up with these ideas that allow thieves to steal at a distance
2. Richard Percival
Karen, I recommend you read the smart card alliance paper
http://www.smartcardalliance.org/pages/publications-proximity-mobile-payments
before assuming that your mobile phone's secure communications can be hacked.
After all, you trust your phone against eavesdropping, don't you?
3. Karen Challinor
"After all, you trust your phone against eavesdropping, don't you?"
oh absolutely, especially after seeing a mobile phone being hacked into to record a conversation on the more 4 documentary "Suspect Nation"
It's not simple I'll grant you, but it can and does happen
and as soon as phones start carrying a version of electronic cash, someone will develop a means of siphoning it out without the owners consent
no security scheme is 100% foolproof
even if it means stealing the phone and using a soldering iron there will be a way of getting at the money
4. Oliver Matthews
That'll help the UK's debt situation!!!
5. jake3_14
Customers wouldn't need to check their bank balances if the banks were responsible in the first place and prevented purchases that overdrew customers' accounts. The people in my crowd would rather be embarassed by a declined transaction that burdened with a usurious overdraft fee. Ethical companies should never base their revenues on exploiting their customers.