When the iPhone came out in Japan a lot of people said it would fail because it didn’t include many of the technologies that Japanese consumers were used to. No NFC to pay for your Red Bull, no mobile TV to make the commute to work bearable by reading animated pornography, no Japanese emoticons so you can have an entire conversation with nothing but symbols. This spring one of those problems, NFC, will be fixed thanks to a partnership between mophie, a maker of cases for the iPhone and various other devices, Flight System Consulting, a Tokyo based general IT shop, and Focal Point Computer, the guys who will actually be making the hardware. Customers will be able to buy a case that has an integrated FeliCa system built in, and then download the FeliCa application from Apple’s App Store to enjoy many of the great features that every other Japanese mobile phone user has. Here is hoping the rumour about the next iPhone having NFC built in is true, there is no reason this type of awesome technology should be limited to Japan.
Press Release, minus some public relation slang removed, after the jump.
mophie™ Announces FeliCa Card Payment Solution for Japan
mophie announced a collaboration with Flight System Consulting Inc. (Tokyo Japan), and Focal Point Computer Inc. (Tokyo Japan) to develop a mobile payment solution for FeliCa¹ technology. Available in spring 2010 in Japan, marketplace FeliCa will allow users to instantly read and write electronic money card information using only the iPhone device and marketplace FeliCa App.
FeliCa is a contactless IC card technology developed by Sony Corporation that is prevalent in Asian countries, used in approximately 100 million mobile phones and more than 120 million transportation and electronic money cards in Japan alone. mophie’s marketplace FeliCa capitalizes on the widespread use of FeliCa technology and delivers solutions for consumer, general business and retail business users who want to process any type of electronic payment in a mobile environment.
The marketplace FeliCa, which includes intelligent case hardware and FeliCa transaction processing App, will read and write FeliCa card information to the iPhone device, empowering users to perform multiple mobile payment transactions immediately and on-the go. Leveraging the RFID technology of the FeliCa cards, users simply launch the marketplace App and place any FeliCa card within one inch of the iPhone, and all information is transmitted instantly to the device.
As a consumer solution, marketplace FeliCa can record all card activity histories, confirm balance on card accounts, report expenses, transfer deposits, provide secure payment and accumulate or deduct rewards points. For general business users, managing employee’s iPhone-based expenses and journals is instantaneous, and it can also enhance existing services that use FeliCa technology such as profile management for patients in the medical services industry. Finally, for retail businesses, marketplace FeliCa provides a low-cost solution for electronic payment processing, be it at a convenience store, supermarket, temporary retail shop or open air market.
mophie, Flight System Consulting and Focal Point Computer together will provide iPhone payment solutions for electronic money via the marketplace FeliCa in spring 2010 and will be releasing a credit card payment solution in Japan within the year.
¹ – FeliCa is a trademark of Sony Corporation