Mobile Carriers Hope to Cash In With Wallet Phones

Another article on using cell phones as electronic wallets. E-Commerce News writes that "consumers are still not rushing to adopt systems that enable mobile phones to be used as electronic payment devices." The article states that leading the industry as usual is NTT DoCoMo, which reportedly has some 3 million cell phone users and 20,000 retailers and other vendors signed up for its Mobile Wallet offering.

Even with plenty of industry interest, there is currently little interest or demand, at least in the U.S., among consumers for cell phone services such as electronic wallets. Former In-Stat analyst Neil Strother (now with NPD Group) said, "Some of those opinions will shift with time. Enthusiasm could build for services that do not poll well today. But it will be up to manufacturers and carriers to help move end-users to more favorable views."

The article cites a recent study by Juniper Research that preidcts mobile commerce will be a $40 billion industry by 2009, much of that made up of millions of micropayments. Juniper beleives it will take hold in Europe before the U.S. with average cell phone users conducting "nearly 30 transactions per year on a mobile handset, but with an average transaction value of just $3."

In the U.S., Telecom analyst Jeff Kagan said "But it's still early. The number of users actively seeking out those advanced services are still very small. The mobile phone will be ubiquitous and carriers will offer a range of services to take advantage of that fact and generate revenue, but consumers will have the final say about what works and what doesn't."