SanDisk, makers of flash memory products, is cooperating with Philips to put mobile payment capabilities directly into flash memory cards that can be used with mobile devices to create a mobile payment device. The plan is to put the Philips SmartMX chip into SanDisk TrustedFlash products to enable payment using Near-Field Communication (NFC) technology, or contactless payment.
Philips and SanDisk are taking steps to help jumpstart NFC-based payment for the vast majority of handsets (i.e. outside of Japan at the moment, mainly)that lack the capability currently as follows:
"For the millions of existing handsets in the market that are not NFC-enabled, SanDisk and Wireless Dynamics are partnering to offer NFC SDiDâ„¢ Adapters, plug-and-play SDâ„¢ and miniSDâ„¢ NFC adapters integrating SanDisk TrustedFlash cards with SmartMX. Once inserted into the mobile phone, the NFC SDiD Adapter allows users to interact with contactless devices and perform secure NFC transactions. They can also use the TrustedFlash card to provide storage for their personal content and applications."
May 18th, 2006 at 10:18 am
The idea is old and now the technology is coming around.