Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: Nokia, Money, PayPal | Themes: Smartphones, Business
Nokia yesterday announced the launch of Nokia Money, a financial service that enables users to send money to a friend using just their phone number.
Nokia has announced plans on entering the mobile payments market within the next year. Run in cooperation with mobile payments startup Obopay, Nokia Money will allow users to send money to others, as well as pay merchants and bills, using their mobile phone numbers.
The Finnish phone manufacturer announced the move Thursday, noting that though there are 4 billion mobile phone users in the world, there are just 1.6 billion bank accounts.
"In many countries, mobile phone ownership significantly exceeds bank account usage, suggesting that many mobile phone users have very limited or no access to basic financial services," explained Mary McDowell, EVP and Chief Development Officer at Nokia."With more than 4 billion mobile phone users and only 1.6 billion bank accounts, global demand for access to financial services presents a strong opportunity to combine mobile devices with simple but powerful financial services such as Nokia Money," McDowell finished.
While Nokia isn't really revealing too much about the service right now, it doesn't look like this is something that is only for Nokia-brand handsets. Teppo Paavola, VP and Head of Corporate Business Development said that the service would soon be available across different networks and on "virtually any mobile phone."
Check out the full release here.
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Exactly what I needed, an easyer way to give money to my friends...
A hackers..., delight.
Nokia is a little behind the times. Bill collectors use a telephone to call my friends and collect payments all the time. I just have to figure out a way to have some of that money sent to me.
A hackers..., delight.
Indeed... Security is the first thing that comes to mind for me. When/if someone rips off your phone, will the memory of the device hold login credentials?
I often use eBay/PayPal and access my bank account on my phone and to be frank, as a computer geek i don’t feel too safe doing this, even though I clear the cache and have strong passwords.
A phone is not like a PC or Laptop in your home where you are not likely to lose your unit or have it stolen.
didn't they already have something like this in japan?
Disaster just waiting to happen. Instead of doing this why not make a better phone. Just a thought
didn't they already have something like this in japan?
Many countries have strong online banking, and spending systems in place, including countries in Africa. It seems to be working out there.
I'm in favour of further digitising money.