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

Geoffrey Ramadan gramadan at umd.com.au
Sun Apr 29 13:04:39 AEST 2007


Rick Welykochy wrote:
> 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.

I have heard, some time ago, the average life of a mobile phone was 
about 18 months

A colleague of mind who is involved in running a retail chain of mobile 
phone shops said that consumers (in the younger age bracket) simply 
treat mobile phones as fashion accessories.


>
>> 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.
A debit/credit card is not quite the same thing.

NFC enables cash-less payments of small transactions. There have been a 
number of  attempts at this (Mondex comes to mind) using smart-cards but 
to date nothing has come to fruition (though the new Victorian ticketing 
system could potentially full fill this role... and if we are lucky may 
be compatible with NFC). 

Note having to carry around cash, has lots of benefits to both consumers 
and merchants.
>
> 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.
So what's new?
>
> 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?
On this basis I assume we should still be renting "super8" 8mm film.
>
> I guess wanton upgrade-itis will continue unabated until the actual
> environmental cost of doing so is included in the market model.
Agree on this point. I have always said that environmental issues will 
sort itself out once you put it on the balance sheet.

On another point I have noticed on this thread... people still refer to 
this device as a "mobile phone". In the not to distant future this 
"mobile phone" will be able to:-

- via NFC
     - make cash-less payments (parking, news papers, etc)
    - use as electronic entry ticket (send to you phone)
    - make payment via mobile phone
    - enable data transfer between devices (images, sound, mpeg)
- play games
- use as calculator
- Media player/recorder (
- Take high quality photographs
- Take high quality movies
- iPTV
- Digital Radio
- Clock/Alarm
- answering machine
- SMS
- e-mail
- browse
- Decode barcodes (via camera) - use to provide consumer information 
(via 2D codes) or have embedded URL, make purchases, barcode catalogs etc.
- have inbuilt GPS
- Provide real time location based services
- Memory Drive (USB/Bluetooth/NFC)
- connect to your wearable health monitor and transfer data to your 
Health Service Provider (HSP)
- Provide duress alarm facilities (with GPS)
- Video phone
- Incorporate WiFi (for location based sevices - where is Dr X)
- Localised Communicator (Use VoIP when within buildings via WiFi) 
Future domestic phones could be replaced by WiFi interface.
- universal remote controller (also controlled by speech recognition 
technology)
- video projector
- virtual keyboard projector and sensor
Adding Zigbee radios would also enable communications to
    - interface to head up displays
    - mesh with other devices within rooms - voting, gaming, etc?
    - sensors and monitors (health, building, alrams etc)
and of course
- use as a mobile phone
- etc I am sure you can come up with more features.

I think it might be time we come up with another name for such a device.

Reg
Geoffrey Ramadan B.E.(Elec)
Chairman, Automatic Data Capture Association (www.adca.com.au)
and
Managing Director, Unique Micro Design (www.umd.com.au)




>
>
> cheers
> rickw
>
>
>



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