[LINK] News: 'New mobile phones will double as credit cards'

[Rick Welykochy]

Roger Clarke wrote:

> New mobile phones will double as credit cards
> By Holly Ife
> News.com
> April 27, 2007 01:00am
> http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21629005-2,00.html

[SNIP]


> "This will be fantastic for retailers, fantastic for banks and consumers 
> won't have to carry an extra card. The mobile phone will end up being 
> everything."

It won't be fantastic for the environment. What is the average lifetime
of a mobile phone right now? How often do people replace them? My guess
is far too often as it is.

> Mr Ilhan said millions of people around the world would need to upgrade 
> handsets to access the new technology, and retailers would need to 
> upgrade scanning technology.

What benefit would this have to society in general? And why would retailers
benefit? The existing infrastructure works. Yes, yes, it is very tedious
to carry around a 10 gram plastic card but I think we are used to it
by now.

Sounds like a solution looking for a problem.

Do people proposing these "solutions" ever stop and ask whether or not
things like this are actually required? Sounds like another excuse to
replace existing technology to rake in more bucks.

I note that blue-ray DVDs have invaded my local video shop. Once again,
here we have the, what, fourth or fifth generation in video technology
that will mean scrapping billions of existing DVDs and millions of
players for the sake of ... higher resolution pictures?

I guess wanton upgrade-itis will continue unabated until the actual
environmental cost of doing so is included in the market model.


cheers
rickw



-- 
_________________________________
Rick Welykochy || Praxis Services

Klingon function calls do not have parameters, they have 'arguments'
and they ALWAYS win them.