Phones used as credit cards not happening anytime soon

Cell phones do lots of wondrous things to the many that use them. It’s by far the best communication tool out there with the plethora of features packed into a small form factor. There are even devices out there which combine your mobile phone as a credit card. The technology isn’t new and has been around for quite some time. But here in the United States, we have been sluggish to adopt this technology. The technology can be found in some places where you see people waiving their credit card over a scanner to make a purchase; but the integration to cell phones has been slow. When you look at Japan, this has been going on there for the past five years. The reason why it is easier for this technology to be used in Japan is the fact that a single carrier, NTT DoCoMo, accounts for more than half of the Japanese market. With such a huge market share, they have significant leverage with financial institutions and handset manufacturers. Small trials have been happening in the U.S. in places such as Atlanta, New York, and the San Francisco Bay Area. In order for this to work here, cell phone manufacturers, carriers, financial institutions, and retailers must play their roles. Unlike NTT DoCoMo, there is no carrier that has a huge market share penetration to push forward this technology. And on top of that, many consumers may be too concerned about the possibilities of fraud if they were to have their device stolen or lost. Still, we are seeing a lot of things being integrated to our mobile phones that help out in our daily activities.

source: The New York Times