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“Osaifu Keitai” (or, in English, “Mobile Wallet”) is gaining substantial traction in the Japanese market, as customers of leading wireless carriers NTT DoCoMo, KDDI (au), and Softbank come to use their cellular handsets to make retail payments, as commutation passes, and even as a means to secure electronic “coupons.” This Portelligent Tech Perspective provides some background on the underlying FeliCa technology, surveys the evolution of infrastructure and services for the “Mobile Wallet” in Japan, and gives an overview of related activity elsewhere in Asia, in Europe, and in North America. Also provided is information on handsets enabled for mobile payments, drawn from Portelligent product teardown reports.
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