Smart Phones in America Get Smarter: It Replaces a Credit Card

Ditch your wallets! Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and AT&T, the biggest mobile carriers in the United States jointly announced today an initiative, now named Isis for the Egyptian god of simplicity, that will change the way customers buy goods and services. Consumers will no longer have to carry around multiple credit cards. They can use a smartphone instead.

The wireless companies plan to roll out the venture within 18 months. Manufacturers will use that time to create cell phone microchips consumers will need for wireless payments, and to build point-of-sale phone readers for stores. To make a purchase, a shopper would log in to a password-protected application on an Isis-ready phone and hold the phone near an electronic reader at the checkout counter. The microchip allows the customer to transfer encrypted information to a bank or credit card company. Consumers would sign for the amount and receive a bill much like a traditional credit card each month. Account holders would sign up for these digital credit, debit or prepaid cards through [the Discover credit card company and British bank Barclays]. Isis executives hope to include other banks as part of the network....In coming weeks, Google will release the newest version of its Android mobile phone operating system, codenamed Gingerbread, which will include special chips and could be used in commerce, the company announced this week. In May, Visa introduced a product that can transform most smart phones, including Apple’s iPhone, into payment devices that can store multiple card accounts in an "e-wallet." Bank of America began testing similar technology in September, while JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo are developing their own pilot programs, according to Visa. U.S. Bancorp will begin testing the technology in multiple states this month and plans to offer it to select customers next year.

This technology has been available in Japan, the UK and Turkey for years. Atlanta will serve as one of three test cities, but the question is: Is this technology msafe? Only time will tell. What we really need is the phone above. (Sadly, it doesn't exist...yet.)


Here's how an Isis-ready phone might work:



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