SJA Mobile

The card giant has announced that it is developing applications for Google’s Android operating system and upcoming Nokia smartphones. to make mobile payments and receive real-time financial information.

The initial focus will be on notification of card activity, the delivery of coupons and other targeted offers, and the location of the nearest ATM or Visa-accepting business.

Actual phone-based payments may have to wait until the release next year of Nokia phones equipped with Near-Field Communication (NFC) chips,

wireless smart cards that communicate with compatible readers over short distances (about four inches). Similar technology is already in use in Mobil’s EZPay and Visa’s payWave programs. The first NFC-equipped phone, the 6212 Classic, is scheduled for release in October 2009.

Consumer market is ready for mobile payments. Consumers in Japan and Europe have been using their phones to buy goods and services for some time.

Apple, Inc.’s iPhone 3G may shortly be sold lawfully in China through China Mobile, the world’s largest cell-phone provider. It was accounted that negotiation between Apple and China Mobile are in the closing levels.

Remarkably, is the fact that China Mobile is a member of Google’s Open Handset Alliance, a group of companies that project to develop products based on Google’s Android mobile-phone platform that would compete in real time with the iPhone.

If Apple inks deal with China Mobile, the iPhone 3G would be sold in 43 countries. China has more than 600 million cell-phone subscribers, with China Mobile accounting for 415 million of them, according to the company’s figures.

Apple’s iPod has did well in China in spite of the knockoffs, which foreshadows l for the iPhone’s possibilities. The iPod’s success manifests that people will pay a premium for the original product.