GenePhillips's Blog – April 2008 Archive (5)

Emerging Mobile News



Banks will become phone companies and telecom companies will become banks. Mobile payment systems, micropayments, mobile phone credit card transactions and loans. Economic impact of remittances from foreign workers using SMS credit to avoid foreign exchange transaction costs.





How biometrics fingerprint… Continue

During the past decade, the total value of money sent by migrant workers to their countries of origin has increased steadily. The World Bank and GSM Association estimate that in 2006 alone, approximately $250 billion was remitted globally. These transactions involved 200 million migrant workers, and the figures are increasing by approximately 30 percent per year. For some countries, these remittances exceed both direct foreign investment and… Continue

NTT DoCoMo Inc has announced it will launch the FOMA "Raku-Raku Phone Premium (F884i)" mobile phone on April 14, 2008. This handset was announced in March 2008 as an upper model of the "Raku-Raku Phone" series manufactured by Fujitsu Ltd. Fujitsu held a press preview April 11 when the handset's marketing schedule was determined. The Raku-Raku Phone Premium features 1seg viewing and the "Osaifu-Keitai (contactless mobile IC card)" capabilities, while… Continue

Mention mobile commerce in North America, and the common response is a roll of the eyes. It’s not hard to guess why. Back in the heady days of the Internet dot-com bubble, mobile commerce was one of the many buzz words connected with e-commerce whose promise failed to materialize because the hype was premature. Today’s landscape is much different. Several trends are… Continue

More Details: Mobile barcodes are on the verge of becoming a global phenomenon, but what exactly are they, what do they do, and for whom? We became familiar with the original, linear barcodes (or 1D), from our supermarket shopping in the 1980’s (although the technology was patented in the 1950’s). They comprise a series of vertical black lines and white spaces… Continue