Adieu wallet, my wallet phone is here

The land of the rising sun has another ace up its sleeve. The "Wallet
Phone" has captured the pockets of three million people in Japan. The
country's biggest mobile operator, NTT DoCoMo's wallet phone is the latest
for this gadget-loving nation's fancy handsets that already include digital
cameras, portable TVs, e-mail and streaming video downloads.

The wallet phone is the next stage in the evolution of mobile phones. These
were pioneered by NTT-DoCoMo by combining a multi-application smart card with i-Mode
phones. Wallet phones can contain credit cards, entrance tickets, train tickets,
air tickets, employee ID cards, and most other instruments we currently carry in
our purse. Selected information, for example the remaining electronic cash
balance, or some transaction records, can be directly read offline by the cell
phone.

The wallet phone, which can now also be used at some soda-pop vending
machines and restaurants, is part of DoCoMo's ambitions to turn cell phones
into the gadget of choice for the future, replacing wallets, credit cards,
tickets and keys. All that's needed to do to make payments with a wallet phone
is to swipe the handset next to a special terminal set up at stores-which have
climbed to 20,000 shops nationwide.

NTT DoCoMo controls about 60% of the Japanese mobile market with 48 mn
customers. Sumitomo Mitsui, which pioneered Visa card issuance in Japan, will
install terminals at retail shops nationwide, which will, in all probability,
greatly boost the number of places where wallet phones can be used. Sumitomo
Mitsui Banking Corp, the banking unit in the same group, will also develop ATMs
compatible with wallet phones, the companies said.

Courtesy: www.bbc.co.uk