See this posting on Payments News which goes to show that the mobile phone will become what the payment card was. The one device to be used if you need to pay something.
From the sheer number of articles, white papers etc. is should by now be quite clear that in the future the (mobile) phone will be used either to pay using:
- the phone bill (pre-paid or postpaid)
- Paypal-accounts,
- Mastercard or Visa debit-cards
- Mastercard or Visa credit-cards
- regular bank accounts.
Too bad that, although we are now 5 years busy discussing whether payments via mobile phone may or may not constitute e-money, the European Commission still appears to be the opinion, that m-payments won't happen; as a result of which m-payments need not be regulated when operated by a mobile operator (nonetheless regulated if applied by anyone else in the market).
