Mobile payments are set to explode over the next few months, with Google Wallet launching later this year and Isis, the joint venture setup by AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon due to hit the market in the summer of 2012. What makes Isis special is that America’s largest operators recognized that the faster a set of standards and best practices are in place, the faster they can hit the market, so it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to hear that operators in other countries are keen on replicating the model. Enter Denmark, a market dominated by TDC, Telenor, TeliaSonera and 3. They’ve decided to form a joint venture that like Isis will form a standard platform for retailers, and a brand for consumers, that will accelerate the adoption of mobile payments.
“Everything we currently physically have in our wallet or purse will soon be available digitally on our SIM card,” said TDC, Telenor, TeliaSonera and 3. They expect that “within a few years” mobile payments will be mainstream. We wish it could happen sooner … but hey, when it comes to money there are loads of financial regulations that need to be followed in order to prevent any security breaches and to make the people who will ultimately be using this in their day to day lives feel safe that the system is better than what they are already using.
At the end of the day we simply need devices on the market that include near field communication (NFC) technology. So far there’s been the Samsung Nexus S, and … that’s it really*. There’s this dinky little Samsung feature phone being used in the UK and France, but you try telling someone who has an iPhone or Android device that they’ll have to switch to a dumb phone in order to pay for their groceries. Not going to happen.
We just have to wait patiently.
* = No, please don’t remind us of the Samsung Galaxy S II, the units currently shipping outside of South Korea don’t have NFC.