It was in the summer of 2000, while on a trip to Ericsson headquarters’ in Stockholm, Sweden, I was first introduced to the concept of “wireless wallet” whereby consumers could use mobile phones at retailers for payments/ fund transfer. As a matter of fact they showed a live demo in the lab environment. For the next nearly seven years, nothing seemed to happen and suddenly we have a renewed interest in eCommerce. It was largely because of the questionable business models and inadequate technology or I should say lack of will by the involved parties.
Now several companies are trying to get a piece of this lucrative pie. Looks like “wireless wallet” is finally going to a viable payment method as some of the leading solution providers are Obopay Inc., Sapphire, VISA, PayPal Mobile etc. and financial institutions are coming together like never before.
Obopay Inc., is currently running trials with Citi customers for sending and receiving money from their mobile phones, track and manage mobile payment, add funds from handset, etc.
Sapphire Mobile is running a pilot program with Elan financial for processing transactions for ATM across the nation.
VISA launched its m-commerce product suite to engage wireless carriers.
Mc Donald allows NTT DoCoMo subscribers to pay through Mobile phone in Japan.
Finally financial institutions, wireless carrier and application developers are coming together at last. I am sure “wireless wallet” has finally arrived, no more credit cards and leather wallets.
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