Pay by Mobile

Nokia, LG, Samsung, Sony and MasterCard are going to make it easier for consumers to shop! Like we need that. There is a plan in motion to make cell phones that can be waived in front of a scanner to make purchases, as with a credit card. This type of service has apparently been available for years in Japan and Hong Kong.

"After several fragmented initiatives, the mobile phone industry is now uniting around a single approach to enabling the mobile phone to be used, instead of cash or plastic credit card, at point of sale," Rob Conway, CEO of the GSM Association, the global trade association for cell phone operators, told Reuters.

It would stand to reason that there will be a security question or PIN number that must be entered into the phone that would enable the purchase. It would be great if it also revealed a picture of the person authorized to make purchases with that mobile device. The benefit being that if your phone is stolen, no purchases could be made by an unauthorized user.

October will bring more news, along with trials of the new services. Click here for more information.