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Technology Stocks : Access Anywhere, Anytime. Cell Phones/PDA's join the Net
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To: Mark Oliver who wrote (104)7/30/1999 10:44:00 AM
From: John Biddle  Read Replies (2) of 332
 
From the link:

There are already quite a few devices in the form of pagers, PDAs, and cell phones, so there's no reason why payment systems shouldn't look to expand to existing devices," he said.

Well, one reason is that the telcos may not want to get into the electronic payment business. Nothing in the article talked about buy-in from any of them. It does seem like something they could do reasonably, though, and not only will they boost interest in cell phones, but they should be able to charge a small fee for the service (maybe paid by the vendor ala Visa) which though small would be high margin.

It will have to be fast, though, to compete with putting in coins. And how about the privacy implications. More and more of your life activities will be available to someone who wants it. Where you were, when and what you did there. Spooky.

. . . Add in all the things that are totally not serious work related like getting a phone listing from a on line yellow pages and you'll see reason to have a good phone no matter what other devices you keep.

There's no doubt in my mind that PCS phones will number over a billion in a few short years. That's one of the reasons I'm long QCOM. Add in things like Bluetooth and Jini where the devices automatically link up as soon as they come near each other and having a cell phone with you at all times will indeed become a necessity. Beepers will disappear as just a feature in the phones, at least for all but the poorest.
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