Anyone who has traveled to Japan recently has no doubt seen folks wave their mobile phone over an infrared reader to pay for purchases such as train tickets or convenience store items.
While the system caught on relatively quickly in Japan, where NTT’s DoCoMo was able to leverage its dominant market position to get financial institutions and cell phone vendors to cooperate, don’t expect to see it anytime soon in the U.S., reports the New York Times. Near Field Communication (N.F.C.) technology adoption in the U.S. being bogged down by the usual legal issues regarding – you know, who pays for the rollout of the systems and how revenues from interest and fees will be shared, etc.
Is this the trend for tomorrow? It seems to be that way. Our mobile “phones” do everything from making videos to bidding on eBay, why not substitute for an ATM card? Exciting technology is at our doorstep, and bank account…