Call Your Friends and Pay for Dinner...With the Same Device?

New Zealand is working on a joint venture that would essentially turn cell phones into credit cards. Phones will become "virtual wallets" that can pay for purchases at supermarkets and train stations. Paymark Ltd. is New Zealand's leading credit-card processor and is joining forces with the three top cell-phone carriers (Vodafone New Zealand Ltd., 2degrees Ltd., and Telecom Corp of New Zealand Ltd.) for this creation. With this new collaboration, customers will be able "to make secure payments, collect loyalty points and use public transport..." This service uses near-field communication which means that customers simply need to hold an enabled phone near specific terminals at locations to make the purchase.

Phones can really do anything now and are being used constantly throughout the day. Our smartphones have become our computers, our cameras, and mostly everything that we used to carry around in our pockets or backpacks. This is a great initiative and furthermore, it's even better to see these different companies working together to build a better technology. It will be interesting to see however credit card companies reaction to this because it has the possibility to eliminate the need for a credit card in the future. Although it's simply starting with just supermarkets and trains, the possibilities for this have no end. Credit card companies will have to keep an eye out to make sure that this does not come and steal their entire market away from them.

Read the full article at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-01/new-zealand-mobile-phones-to-become-virtual-wallets-in-venture.html