Paying with your mobile

Paying with your mobile has been around for ages, but the market has never really emerged nor exploded in Finland. This recent example by the Swedes is "practical". You simply add a card reader to your mobile phone and then you can pay with any credit card in your wallet. http://www.taloussanomat.fi/informaatioteknologia/2011/05/26/ruotsalaiskeksinto-tekee-iphonesta-maksupaatteen/20117532/12
The next question is of course why do you need your wallet and why do you need to carry in your pocket a card reader. A brilliant idea would be to omit both the card reader and the cards.
This however has not been easy to implement. NFC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_field_communication is one solution, but despite promises e.g. Nokia has not been able to introduce the product on their mobile phones http://www.puhelinvertailu.com/uutiset.cfm/2011/04/20/nokia_lipsuu_nfc-sirujen_lisaamisesta . It is not just about having another technology on your phone. It is all about building a net infrastructure.
I guess sometimes you need to go through a step by step process. For this reason the swedish invention is rather fun. Maybe I should go and get myself one of these new gadgets. Then I will go to the local supermarket and try to pay with my new gadget phone. I am sure that the cashier will not accept my payment method - they will want to use their own. It is all about who has power in the network.
The supermarket chain wants you to have their customer loyalty card, they do not want you to combine your customer loyalty cards on to your phones memory chip. They want you to pay using their cash register. New infrastructure such as electronic payments do not emerge easily, because they need to shift the power balance of existing systems.
One way to adopt e.g. a nfc electronic payment method would be for a major player like the local transport system to adopt it. Then it would be followed by small shops and kiosks. In Japan the railways have adopted the nfc system. In Finland a different system is used in local transportation and hence it is preventing the emergence of the nfc system.