Next Monday, December 14th, Mobile Monday Brussels will organise their next event.

The aim of this Mobile Monday Brussels session is to provide an understanding of the what is rapidly changing in the Belgian MVNO scene in terms of technology, branding and business models.

Timing:

18h00. Registration, quick bite and Welcome by Henri Fischgrund, founder Axisparc

18h30. Presentation

• “How SIP and VoIP is transforming the model”
  by Bernard No’l de Burlin ,CEO Mondial Telecom
• “Mobile data MVNO and microMVNO’s”
  by Koen Delvaux, co-Founder & CMO Mobile Vikings
• Speaker 3 under confirmation

19h40. Mobile Monday Barcelona Premier Awards selection and
Mobile Monday Brussels 2010 forecast

19h55. Presentation of HEODE and “One Way” concept by Florent Grandjean
and Loïc Bar, followed by a reception.
Location: (Sponsored by HEODE)

HEODE Louvain-La-Neuve
Axis Parc – @xeICT
Rue Emile Francqui, 5
1435 Mont-St-Guibert

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Both mobile operators and banks are turning to mobile transactions to foster loyalty and drive revenues, according to a new report from Frost & Sullivan. Ranging from vouchers and bank balance checks to remitttance and top-up payments, mobile money is finally coming to fruition in both the banked and unbanked sector, while near field communication (NFC) promises to be the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, claims F&S.

The report – Money in Mobile – European Transactions – estimates the mobile money market in Western Europe to grow to 4 to 5 billion Euros by 2013. The research examines both the banked and unbanked sectors and segments mobile money into four areas, namely: non-NFC based m-payments, mobile banking, remittance, and NFC based m-payments.

Continue article here

Mobile numbers are set to change soon. To meet the surge in mobile users and addition of more phone companies, the government is getting ready to move to a 11-digit numbering plan because the current numbering series can cater to only about 600 million subscribers.

Mobile subscribers number will breach 500 million very soon and the government wants to be ready to take on the surge in subscriber figures.

And the solution is simple—prefix a 9 before the existing mobile number!

Ironically, the present numbering plan, which was introduced in 2003, was supposed to cater to the needs of the mobile industry for the next 30 years.

Now, the 11-digit numbering plan will require most telecom companies to bring changes in their network equipment.

No wonder, many telcos are crying foul. They say that instead of an 11-digit number series, the government can de-reserve the 92 series reserved for Tata Teleservices, 93 series with Reliance Communications or even the 94 series with BSNL.

Nevertheless, the government seems to be favouring the 11-digit numbering plan. Even as the telecom department has circulated an internal note identifying January 1 one as the implementation date, most officials feel that the government may choose to give most telecom operators a little more time as they will also need to start implementing number portability from January next year.

For people who like news on the go, The Irish Times has launched a new mobile site m.irishtimes.com*

The IT’s Hugh Linehan has the details over a Mechanical Turk:

We’ve decided to launch a device-neutral site which will render well on iPhones, BlackBerries, Nokias and everything else. It has breaking news, business and sport stories, and selected content from the newspaper. Some other popular functions, such as Most Read stories and Weather, are also included.

Full post from him here.

B

*Of course you can always use RTE’s mobile news and sports site: m.rte.ie

(DOI: RTE is my employer)

All the mobile sets usually don’t have all the features to boast of, but figure out some of them proclaiming for superiority. Samsung B3410 includes adding the feather of messaging to its cap supporting BT messenger instant messaging to enjoy the might of messaging services as on computers. When online, BT messenger allows exchanging message with other attuned online sets with loads of services. Yes, if you have not heard, this chick glossy black dynamite permits emailing, get or share created text and multimedia communication, images, video clips or other formats you like generate and swap.

The browser ropes in XHTML WAP 2.0 internet swapping. There is little left in Samsung B3410 in data exchanging capability for the wireless Bluetooth feature or wired USB connection. The high speed transmission comes from EDGE & GPRS technological base. The handset switches automatically from one to the other in all popular networks namely 850, 900, 1800 & 1900 850, 900, 1800 & 1900. Direct access to the browser through the menu for information sites or music websites, anything is easy. While the music player supports MP3 music format, it has a solid video player to enjoy MPEG4 video formats. The features of video setting and control are a pleasure. MP3 built-in ringtones can be enriched with downloadable polyphonic tones.

QWERTY keyboard Samsung B3410 makes textual work out a joy on its 2.6 inch TFT 262k color Touch Screen at 240 x 320 Pixels. The 30 MB of internal memory can have expanded support using microSD card. Phonebook allows 1000 entries and Photo call feature. The memory holds 30 of each dialed, received and missed calls as well as useful organizer.

Samsung B3410’s 2MP camera at 1600×1200 pixels supports making video recording with QVGA at 13 frames per second. The capture key is easy to handle. So, the mates do not get bored after satisfying the music mania, the set is ready to let them start shooting videos or take static snaps and display them on impressive screen.

The striking common feature of both Samsung H1 and M1 is Vodafone 360 services. This service encompasses integrated address books and 3D zooming for browsing. Prime common feature to either is Linux-based LiMo Platform Release R2.0.1 OS. Despite Samsung M1’s being the second set to have R2 platform, both the versions are have a good deal of rich features of Vodafone 360 UI for great entertainment and internet connectivity.

Differences in touch screen of these two versions get pronounced for H1 having 3.5 inches AMOLED capacitive display screen of 800 x 480 pixels, on the other hand M1 sporting 3.2 inch TFT screen of 240 x 400 pixels. The 3D user interface and 16 M colour is common to both. Feature of networking remains just the same in H1 and M1 as 2G comes with GSM 850/900/ 1800/1900 and 3G with HSDPA 2100.

Resembling the size and resolution differences, there is a variation in cameras of Samsung H1 Vodafone 360 and Samsung M1 360. The former version takes in 5 MP 2560 x 1920 pixels camera with autofocus and LED flash features. Comparatively the latter version is fitted with 3.15 MP, 2048 x 1536 pixels camera without autofocus and LED flash features. Yet common again are the features of having secondary camera as well the video shooting capability.

Internal memory differ by the way of H1 having 16GB while M1 is restricted at 1GB. However, both the sets have provision of card slot for extending the memory up to 16GB using microSD (TransFlash). Similarity goes for seemingly unlimited Phonebook entries.

A comparison of features speaks of similarity in general; common Radio Stereo FM radio with RDS, HTML browsing, games, SMS and MMS messaging, GPS with A-GPS, CPU spec of ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz PowerVR plus SGX graphics, music and video players, and Java supported organizer. Samsung H1 Vodafone 360 is available in black and silver shades, whereas Samsung M1 360 replaces silver with White and Red, black remains common.

Sony Ericson has been creating many series of phones and one among them is the T series. The people around the world have been waiting for the release of T series mobiles from Sony Ericson. Most of the phones in this T series are of very high quality. They offer great value for money. One such mobile is Sony Ericsson T707. The thing with this T series phone is that it is the first flip model in this T series. The color of the mobile is really impressive. The color provide to the phone is inspired from the rainbow, quite interesting.

Sony Ericsson T707 mobile has many features in it. It is a 3G supportable phone. It has an excellent camera of 3.2 mega pixel and has a TFT display in it. It has a screen that is as wide as 2.2 inches. The phone supports about 256k colors and has 240 x 320 pixels resolution. It has lot more features to add to it. For networking purpose it has a Bluetooth capability in it and the phone supports Usb connectivity also. These are some of the most standard features in the T series mobiles.

Sony Ericsson T707 has an internal memory of about 100Mb and it can be extended to as much as 16 GB through a micro SD card. It also provides for internet connectivity through WAP 2.0 browser. The phone supports for push email facility which is wonderful feature for people using the phone. Then, the phone also has a lot of other basic features such as the FM, polyphonic ring tones. It also supports MP3 player and also supports WAV format. It has an excellent standby time of 400hours when used in GSM mode and in 3G mode. It has a talk time of 10hours when used in the GSM mode and 4 hours when used in 3G mode. It would turn out to be the best selling model for Sony Ericson.

Samsung Tocco is actually the Samsung manufactured model F480. It is also known as Samsung Touch Whiz that is the Brazilian version and not a 3rd generation phone. The phone was announced on February 2008 and launched in worldwide market in May of the same year. The phone has quiet a killer looks, that have TFT touch screen having 256K colours that contributes to 240 x 320 pixels. The display has a size of 2.8. You can enjoy such wide screen by watching videos that can be downloaded or stored, using the connectivity options or through browser options such as WAP and GPRS. You can transfer favourites by the help of EDGE, Bluetooth 2.0 and USB connectivity option.

Samsung Tocco has camera of five Mega pixels that contributes to 2599 x 1944 pixels. The additional features of camera are auto focus that offers image stabilization and face detection. It has a LED flash that gives an excellent brightness in the dark environment to capture every minor noticeable thing. The camera is a video call conferencing camera, which acts as a support system to your business, if you are away from the prime place. So make sure that next time you are going on a holiday with family, then balance work completely by using Samsung Tocco.

Samsung Tocco has an excellent display and camera and to optimize the utilization of every feature, the phone offers graveling memory of 232 MB that can be extended to 8GB with the help of microSD (Transflash) card.

The phone also acts as excellent stress buster, with the stereo quality sound offered by speakers. You can download songs using internet through WAP browser, make your own play list, and keep listening to the stuff while you are traveling. The phone has standby time of up to 250 hours and talk time of up to 3 hours. It can be termed as perfect business operator phone.

Samsung S5560 carries the right type of specifications for its mid price slot of market position. It is a touch screen mobile with 3 inch QVGA display and operates on Company’s own proprietary OS TouchWiz UI. The screen is TFT touch resistive type with 240 x 400 pixel resolutions and supports 256k colours to offer pleasingly fresh images. The accelerometer sensor is of course present.

Samsung Omania2 has taken the position of being hugely popular Smartphone with rich features. The resistive touch screen is a big 3.7 inch, working on AMOLED technology and with 480 x 800 pixel resolution. Naturally, the videos and 3G games played on the screen are expected to be nothing less than incredible in quality of colours, depth and tone. TouchWiz UI is definitely present on this set for navigation.

Provision for photography is present on both the sets. The difference shows up in 5 MP camera with 2592 x 1944 pixel resolution and LED flash fitted on S5560. The camera also has characters of image stabilisation in addition to blink and smile detection, whereas, Omnia2 houses 8.1 MP cameras with 800 x 480MP resolution and dual LED flash. It surely promises the ability of video recording.

With the support of Windows Mobile 6.1 (provisioned to be upgraded to 6.5) Omnia2 plays wonders in the whole range of multimedia capabilities. Samsung S560 has the media player which supports MP3/WAV/eAAC+ and H.263/H.264/MP4 formats of music. Samsung S560 has a built-in stereo FM, but Omnia2 FM radio and 3.5 mm audio socket. Connectivity features of S5660 come from Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g offering speedy hooking to the internet. Omnia2 is a 3G set packed with the power of Wi-Fi.

Power of data transfer comes from Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP in Samsung S5560. Contrary to this, the data transfer in Omnia2 is handled by Bluetooth 2.0 and USB 2.0. The GPS in Omnia2 is accentuated with mapping facility. Memory of S560 can be expanded up to 16 GB, whereas in Omnia2 it goes up to 48 GB.

Sony Ericsson is a company that is known for producing high quality mobile phones. It has given out various series of mobile phones and among them the walkman series is very famous. Another mobile in this series is the Sony Ericsson W715. The phone is considered as one of the most advanced phones in this category. It is a slider phone and they are very much bought by the young crowd around the world. It supports both 2G and 3G technologies. The battery used in it is the reliable Li-on battery.

Sony Ericsson W715 is a relatively lighter phone with a weight of around 98 grams. Its dimensions are 95 x 47.5 x 14.3 mm. This walkman phone produced by the company is reduced in size when compared to others. The screen size is 2.4 inches and has a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. The display type is graphical and this is the most reliable form of display. It has a huge contact capacity of about 2000 contacts. It supports MP3 ring tones and polyphonic ring tones. It has a very realistic and powerful music player and the phone has various options for playing the music. The mobile also has facilities that are basic in any music phone i.e. the walk man edition in Sony Ericson.

The network feature in Sony Ericson W715 is great. Sony Ericsson W715 has facilities for internet connectivity through WAP. It has the Wi-Fi connectivity feature and also has Bluetooth connectivity in it. Like other models of its cost it also has USB connectivity. The mobile has email client feature that is really for businessmen. The phone has a standby time of 400 hours in case of GSM and 350 hours in case of the 3G usage. You can talk as long as you want because it has talk time of 10 hours in case of the GSM mobile and has a talk time of 4 hours in case of the 3G service. If you were looking for a good product from Sony then this is the best phone for you.

Does not come as a surprise. We have known this all along. Admob was a ripe target for Google. The deal could not have come at a better time for Google. Android is maturing as a platform. Garter suggests by 2012 Android will overtake Apple iPhone installed base. OEMs are backing the platform, Verizon has finally launched Droid (Motorola) and Eris (HTC).

Admob acquisition ads another feather to Google’s mobile ad serving portfolio. (Admob + Adsense + Doubleclick mobile). Admob officially announced the acquisition today. here it goes:

“Today we announced that AdMob has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Google for $750 million. We are extremely excited about this new partnership and what it means for our advertiser, developer and publisher partners.

AdMob’s people, products and tools will continue to work to deliver successful campaigns for you and to effectively monetize your mobile traffic – no interruptions.  Our product and engineering teams will keep building great products for our customers. Our sales team will keep working with our thousands of advertisers to deliver successful campaigns. Our business development team will keep working to maximize ad revenue for the more than 15,000 mobile Web sites and applications that make up AdMob’s publisher network.

After our deal closes, AdMob will work with Google to accelerate the pace of innovation in mobile and do an even better job for you. We believe this deal will benefit our advertisers, developers and publishers by:

*Increasing our investment in building innovative and engaging ad units across platforms and to further improve targeting and tracking.

*Building even more powerful relevance and optimization capabilities, and more powerful technology and tools to monetize mobile traffic.

*Increasing the effectiveness of display advertising on mobile devices by leveraging Google sales team, infrastructure and relationships.

*Improving the already high level of service and support we deliver to our advertisers, developers and publishers.

You can read more about this deal at www.admob.com/google.”

Admob goes Google!

A simple phone with a great performance with a sleek and sophisticated look – this description is just apt for the newly launched Samsung S3100. Samsung, one of the leading mobile companies of the world had announced its launch in August 2009 and finally in September 2009 the model was launched to stun the mobile users. This ‘new kid in the block’ as loads to offer and one shouldn’t be deceived by its simple look. Samsung S3100 will never let you down and promises superior performance.

The Samsung S3100 is one of the best combinations of unique features and the best communication features that can be found in any mobile. The all new model comes with a TFT screen measuring around 2.1 inches. Marvelous colours are displayed with a resolution of 176×220 pixels. Samsung S3100 supports 2G network GSM 850/900/1800/1900. Users can store up to 1000 contacts in the phonebook. It comes with a photo call feature, which makes it interesting and attractive for the users. This new model comes loaded with polyphonic MP3 and MAV ring tones. Users can also choose to keep it in the vibration mode when they do not want to be disturbed and at the same time attend calls. Users can ‘shoot and share’ with the 1.3 mega pixel camera that comes inbuilt with this phone. Happy memories can also be stored conveniently in the form of images and pictures. Sending SMS, MMS is easy with Samsung S3100. With this model users can access and even send e-mails.

Samsung 3100 is just the right phone for ‘music lovers’. The super FM stereo with RDS comes with a high powered MP3 and MP4 player. It will give you a feel of surround sound. Other additional feature of this phone includes an organizer and a voice memo. Samsung 3100 comes in two colours black and girly pink.

The Android mobile Operating System from Google created a plunge by most of the big brands of mobile phones. A series of Android based smart phones hit the market, but these were positioned in high-end expensive category. However, both HTC Tattoo and T-Mobile Pulse have taken the other course. These models are positioned for mass marketing taking low price as selling feature.

The appearance:
Generally speaking, both the models look attractive, although plastic is used for casing. T-Mobile Pulse features gleaming black casing with lighter shade to the edges. Additionally pleasing faux-carbon fibre effect has been punched. The power key and microSD card slot are placed on left side of the body. Right side has keys for camera and volume control. The front features a double acting home and back key that works for ‘back’ with a short press and a long press returns to ‘home’.

Tattoo is also shrouded in plastic cover. Additionally covers will be available with options of designs through tattoomyhtc.com. Under the screen all the keys for home, menu, search, call and back are located.

The display:
T-Mobile Pulse is fitted with HVGA screen of 3.5 inch size. Apparently offering a bigger look, it is quite touch sensitive and provides clear images. Whereas, Tattoo sports QVGA screen of 2.8 inch size and it is resistive type hence multi touch feature is missing and needing more time for clear browsing.

Photographic features:
Pulse houses 3.2 MP Autofocus camera in addition to a VGA camera. The set has weak resolution for video capturing at 288 x 352. On the comparative scale The Tattoo is fitted with 3.1 MP Autofocus primary camera. The representation of images is certainly attractive on its resistive touch screen.

In conclusion, both the handsets provide a value for entry level use and offer a reasonably good feeling of possessing a smartphone. However, young users may be more attracted to the option of choosing Tattoo’s designer covers as a fascination for variety.

AP Mobile powered by Tringapps!

Contrats Tringers. A job well done once again. Today AP Mobile News app hits another milestone, thanks to hard work by Tringers. AP Mobile is the only news app, tested for all Android based smartphones available in the market today.

The list includes:

- G1, G2, Ion, HTC Hero, Samsung Galaxy, HTC myTouch, HTC HD2, Motorola Cliq and … yet to be launched today – Verizon Droid (Motorola). AP Mobile news app covers the complete spectrum: Android 1.5, Android Cupcake (1.6) and the latest and greatest Android Eclair (2.0) platforms.

Now, that what we call leading edge, cutting edge … ah the bleeding edge .. WELL DONE TRINGERS. A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR THE ANDROID TEAM.

As a result of the recent launch of De Standaard iPhone App, a heavy debate is going on about the fact that this premium News App contains advertising. It raises many interesting issues:

• to which extent can a paid App contain advertising? Or should advertising only be included in free Apps?
• what is the correct price of a “no-advertising-please” App? Apparently some users state that they would be willing to pay even more NOT to see any advertising.
• what type of “sponsoring” is more acceptable/less acceptable: eg mobile coupons with clear advantages versus mobile banners

Please post your points of view on the LinkedIn Web Goes Mobile discussion forum or via Twitter #wgm4.

Although combined sales are allowed for a few months now, there aren’t that many offers on the market yet.  Telenet is one of the first large telecom players starting a combined offer.  When ordering a “Walk & Talk 20″ subscription at 20 Euro a month, you can choose a mobile phone at 1 Euro.  Among the mobile phones available with the offer, are the Samsung Star, LG Viewty, Sony Ericsson Naite and Nokia 3720.

If other providers are following, we could finally be on our way to a necessary renewal of the Belgian mobile phone park, which has been lagging behind in Europe.

The Wall Street Journal will begin charging consumers as much as $2 a week to access its news coverage via mobile device.

Rupert Murdoch, CEO of parent firm News Corp., said it will impose mobile fees within the next month or two. Murdoch did say that subscribers to the Journal’s print edition would only be charged $1 a week for mobile web access, with the $2 weekly fee applying to non-subscribers.

The Wall Street Journal is one of the few major U.S. newspapers requiring premium subscriptions for its online content – the publication currently boasts more than 1 million online subscribers. The Journal introduced a free mobile news application in February 2008, followed six months later by the WSJ.com Mobile Reader, a free app optimized for BlackBerry smartphones. The Journal’s free iPhone app debuted in April 2009.

More info

What is Samsung Tocco Lite? This is the new interface offered more versatile, making intuitive and easy-to-use navigation. Large 3.0” LCD with 262K Color WQVGA showcases brilliance and optimized view.

This is compact size measures a palm-friendly 104×53x11.9mm with a sleek squared shape and chic black color completes touch style.

Also you can find there mobile widgets customized screen with embedded widgets such as clock, scheduler, and other useful apps. Online widgets connect you to useful info including stock updates, weather forecast, latest news, etc.

It looks like a fun phone, and apart from the limited data speeds it seems to have all the cool features of much more expensive handsets. Although there’s no exact word on pricing, we imagine that it will cost significantly less that €200 or £150 SIM-free when it becomes available from May onwards.

Features of the Samsung Tocco Lite include:

3.2 megapixel camera with digital zoom
Video recording (QVGA 15fps)
Display: TFT, 262K colours, 240 x 400 pixels (3.0 inches)
Music player (MP3/AAC/AAC+/AAC++/WMA formats)
Stereo FM radio RDS
64-voice polyphonic ringtones / MP3 ringtones
Integrated handsfree speakerphone
Personal organiser functions
Memory: MicroSD memory card slot (up to 16GB)
Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.1, USB 2.0
WAP 2.0, GPRS Class 10, EDGE
Quadband GSM
Size: 106 x 54 x 12 mm
Weight: 94g

You love to read your favourite books using mobile phone at any time, anywhere? Looking for free service offering free mobile books fot mobile? Check out MBoxter – http://mboxter.com/- a new service allowing mobile phone owners to read mobile books while in transport, while waiting for a train or at any time you feel bored. Though there’s no need to carry books along with you to do so. MBoxter can transform your mobile phone into a library filled with your favourite intriguing mobile books.

What’s so special about it?

The service’s main function is to allow you the ability to make a mobile e-book version of a book on your own within seconds. To do so you only need to upload the text content and MBoxter will handle the rest. Your mobile e-book will be available for download right after the upload. More so, you’ll not only be able to upload your own mobile books but you’ll also have access to e-books uploaded by other users and have the ability to submit or view reviews for them. In other words, you’ll gain access to a community of intelligent people that make it their goal to advance and perfect their mental capabilities.

What’s it like?

Mboxter converts text content into applications for mobile phones. The navigation provided is simple and easy use. Flipping the page of a mobile e-book is done by pressing 8 on the number pad (down on the d-pad) while pressing 2 (up on the d-pad) flips back a page. The application menu is called up by pressing 4 (left on the d-pad) or 6 (right on the d-pad).

Wap.youpark.com brings easy access to latest news, daily horoscopes and free/trial mobile applications and games anywhere, anytime, on a mobile device.

Wap.youpark.com enables the consumers to stay connected with the up-to-minute news, entertains them with daily horoscope and provides them an easy access to free applications and games whenever and wherever they want, from their mobile device.

Wap.youpark.com is absolutely free. It provides an enhanced user experience to the consumers by providing them "one click access" to hot news, daily horoscopes and latest mobile content.

With Youpark mobile, end users can easily discover, browse and download popular mobile applications and games from the rich portfolio of Youpark. It allows the end users to either download the free mobile applications and games directly on their devices through GPRS or to download it from the link sent on their emails. Youpark mobile is available on large amount of devices of Nokia Series 60, Series 40, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Pocket PC and Smartphone, Plam and Blackberry.

Wap.youpark.com provides mobile users with thousands of popular mobile applications and games that support popular devices/platforms like Symbian, Java, Smartphone, Palm OS, Pocket PC and Blackberry.

There can be a lot of confusion about the ‘mobile wallet’ and its regulatory implications.

To help clarify the regulatory implications of a mobile wallet, the analogy with a traditional leather wallet can be helpful. A leather wallet has no regulatory implication per se. It is just a container for different payment instruments, such as cash and cards. This is also true for the mobile wallet. The mobile wallet is just a menu on the phone, which provides access to different payment instruments. The payment instruments are regulated as opposed to the wallet.

The equivalent to cash in the leather wallet is e-money in the mobile wallet. E-money is either regulated by e-money regulation or by traditional banking regulation. If there is no e-money regulation, then the e-money can only be held in a bank account held by a bank. If there is e-money regulation, the mobile operator can hold the prepaid cash of its customers in a secured float. In this case the customer can store money in a prepaid account in the wallet, i.e. the mobile operator can offer the customer the ability to store money in the mobile wallet.

The equivalent of a credit or debit card in the wallet is the option to choose a card provider. The customer effectively uses a card processing provider and the payment is processed in a similar way as a traditional card payment. As in the real world, it is the card payment processor who is responsible for regulatory compliance.

(CNN) — These days, it seems that most Americans carry three things in their pockets or purses at all times: keys, a wallet and a phone.

A survey says 15 percent of phone users in Japan use their phones to make payments.

But, in the not-too-distant future, you may be able to leave the wallet and the keys behind.

The mobile phone is staging a coup.

Some analysts say that within five years, mobile phones in the United States will be able to make electronic payments, open doors, access subways, clip coupons and possibly act as another form of identification.

These futuristic uses for phones are becoming reality in countries like South Korea and Japan, which typically are ahead of the United States when it comes to mobile technology.

A 963-person survey by Forrester Research, for instance, found that 15 percent of Japanese mobile phone users make payments and purchase products in stores with their phones.

The ideas have been tried in the United States too, but with less success.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, banks and cell phone makers started conducting trials with U.S. customers. Limited groups of people were given the ability to scan their phones to make payments, enter stadiums and access public transit.

Those phone-forward guinea pigs didn’t like the new functionalities as well as expected, and the ideas never took off on a commercial scale, said Ed Kountz, a senior analyst at Forrester.

But Kountz said there’s now resurgent interest in merging phones with wallets and keys. In 2009, people are more dependent on their phones than they used to be.

“I think it is different this time around,” said Kountz, who believes that phones in the United States will be used to make mobile payments within five years.

“The overall utility of cell phones has expanded, and more consumers are using the data aspects of cell phones,” he said.

what i suggest is the mobile wallet technology has to link with banking and finace industry