20110311 Pocket Change (1)

Pocket Change

The race is on to transform your smartphone into your wallet

The Japanese call it osaifu keitai (cell-phone wallet). Flash your phone virtually anywhere you go for almost any purchase and it's automatically logged into a digital expense report. Eat frequently at McDonald's? Tap your phone to pay and your all-in-one debit card/receit tracker/loyalty program may instantly offer you 10 percent off. Today, if you want to enjoy these benefits, you have to go to Japan. But after years of talk, wireless carriers, bank, startups and handset makers are now actively working to transfer Americans' cell phone into mobile wallet. The goal: to snag a share of the processing fees associated with the $3.2 trillion in annual retail credit-card charges, and to turn the $1.2 trillion in cash and check spending into digital transactions.

A new era for credit cards
For the past five-plus years, Visa and MasterCard have used near-field communication (NFC) chips in tap-to-pay credit cards and key fobs. Now they're embracing mobile phones as well.

"Consumers already use phones for online payments," says Josh Peirez, MasterCard Worldwide's chief innovation officer, referring to downlaoded songs and software. "The goal is to get them comfortable doing the same thing in the physical world." Nokia has announced that it will include NFC chips in all its 2011 smartphones, effectively forcing Apple, Research in Motion and other rivals to follow suit.

"... Demand is growing," says Gerhard Romen, Nokia's director of mobile financial services, "and full implementation is what makes a technology go forward." Analysts estimates NFC will become ubiquitous within the next three to five years, which will give wireless carriers newfound leverage in determining the future of the mobile wallet.



log into 登入
=> to access a computer system by providing proper identification

key fob 密碼卡/感應卡/感應扣
=> a small device with a built-in USB flash drive used for data storage or identification

expense report 支出報告/支出報表
eg: Don't gorget to add last month's trip to your expense report before you turn in.

snag v. 搶先奪取/爭奪
eg: Jan hopes to snag one of the designer wedding gowns when they go on sale.

follow suit 跟進/仿效
eg: Once our school enforces the new testing guidelines, it won't be long before other school follow suit.

implementation 履行/實施/引進新措施
eg: Effective implementation of the English program has increased English fluency within the government offices.