MobileNest

Nokia is in the forefront of a new initiative to turn mobile phones into wallets. The goal of the mobile wallet plan is to create technology, which will allow users to wave their phone as a wallet or access card over a wireless reader with capability to enter an identification PIN into the phone.

“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,” said Rob Conway, CEO of the GSM Association, the global trade association for mobile phone operators.

In Japan, where the technology was already available for a while, 12.6 million users already use electronic wallets.

To make this technology available a new wireless chip needs to be embedded into the phone. Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, and Nokia are going to start embedding the chip into their phones.

MasterCard is the first credit card company that is involved in the initiative. The mobile wallet solution is more attractive than other wireless solutions (SMS text messages, etc.), because it is cheaper and faster.