So far, Nokia has introduced four products that use a new technology enabling cell phones to be used as wallets or access cards. The technology is called “NFC: Near Field Communications”. The cell phone is simply waved over a wireless reader and sometimes the user might enter a PIN number into the phone. Such products are still highly priced and aren’t ready to be presented to the market yet. That is mainly because SIM cards need to have an additional security chip in order to apply such technology.

“When the 20 percent level is reached it starts to feed itself,” R&D manager at telecom operator TeliaSonera. There are expectations that the 20 percent level will be reached only by 2012. It’s also said that the expenses will be much less when operators start adding security functions to their SIM cards.

Though NFC is highly supported by the biggest industry companies, experts expect that NFC will stay in trial this year. Nokia, MasterCard and major operators in the world like Vodafone, China Mobile and Cingular together with chip makers like NXP and Sony, are highly supporting NFC. These companies work together to develop a standard for electronic wallets in the wireless industry. Electronics wallets are considered much cheaper than other wireless payment methods like those using SMS.

Source: CNET News.com