
Cellphones as Credit Cards? Americans Must Wait - robg
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/business/25proto.html
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iamelgringo
I'm totally talking out of my ass, here, but I wonder if the issue of using
cell phones as payment in the Japan, is partly due to the decreased usage of
credit cards.

I know that in Latin America, where I grew up, there are very few people who
use credit cards. The infrastructure for electronic payments and debits just
isn't there and fraud is rampant. I'd be willing to bet that a lot of
countries with state controlled telecommunication companies or cellular near-
monopolies can leapfrog the credit card adoption hurdle by offering epayments
via cellphone.

What do people in non-US countries think?

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cellis
When i was 15, this was going to be my billion dollar idea. In fact,
monopolizing the cellphone processing market was integral to my plan of world
domination.

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snprbob86
I think _everyone_ had this idea. It is kind of saddening that it is taking so
long for this dream to be realized.

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helveticaman
It's real in Japan.

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patio11
Yep, but we're still fundamentally a cash-based society. Granted, the cell
phone is easier to pay with than a credit card: most times when I swipe a CC
at a restaurant with an average per-person price of less than $15 I have to
wait 5 minutes while the cashier finds someone who knows how to do it.

The e-wallet cell phones are mostly used for convenience stores, which are
sort of like what an American convenience store would look like if Bezos was
running them. You wouldn't even believe me if I told you. Let's start with "If
you work all day getting packages delivered is sort of annoying because the
local equivalent of FedEx might show up before you're home, so instead just
ship them to your local convenience store which is open 24 hours, which will
happily hold them in your name until it is convenient for you to pick it up.
Oh, did you need to pay for it, too? No problem, the convenience store can
process payments for any Internet company worth their salt, generally pre-
shipping but at-delivery for some products. Oh, haven't paid your taxes yet?
Maybe you need to stop by the convenience store! We can also handle water,
power, Internet, cell phone, etc etc. And if financial services make you
thirsty, perhaps our selection of 760 different brands of liquid refreshment
has something you'll enjoy."

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jaaron
Yeah, isn't 7-11 in Asia _amazing_? Not only can you run your life through
convenience stores, but they are ubiquitous. It's hard to walk two or three
blocks without bumping into one.

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Zak
The problem here seems to be that the carriers control the platform. Most cell
phones can't run software without carrier approval, so the carriers want their
cut even in cases where the application has nothing to do with their network.

Android and the iPhone seem to be steps away from this.

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extension
I don't understand how the cellphone is involved in this. My working credit
card right now is a piece of plastic with a number on it. Why couldn't I pull
the RFID device out of the cellphone and put it on my keychain or in a block
of cheese?

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kahseng
It's still my idea! But I think I'll prefer credit cards as cell phones.

(i.e. cards with e-ink and touch sensors and micro-antennae that can still
function as phones) :)

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gojomo
How long after phones replace credit cards will they replace driver's
licenses?

As both manufacturing and network costs fall, it's conceivable that anyone
without an identity-document-compliant cellphone would be issued one, for free
or no cost, by the same government entities that issue driver's licenses or
other official IDs.

