Nokia and Visa announced yesterday a global system to turn mobile phones into wallets for millions of customers. Reuters reports that "Users can pay for groceries and other purchases by swiping a phone over a reader that electronically communicates with a microchip on the phone. Phone owners confirm the purchase with the push of a button and the deal is complete."
The platform was developed after a number of trials around the world (I heard about some trias in Malaysia last year that were very promising) and enables mobile payments, remote payments, person-to-person payments, and mobile coupons. It also enables mobile fundraising for nonprofit organizations in new ways that have not been possible to date.
Consumers manage their payment accounts and funds from their mobile devices. IBM has also helped to create the mobile payment system.
Visa said in a statement at the Consumer Electonics show that it will use global technology standards which have been selected and developed over the past few years by groups such as the Mobile Payment Forum from the world's major credit card companies, telecoms operators, chip makers and handset vendors.
