U.S. Banks Are Slow to Embrace Mobile Commerce

In many ways, I think that we are simply a little slow to adopt anything too cool or risky here in the states.

September 04, 2006 (Computerworld) — Imagine waving your New York subway pass in front of the cash register at a 7-Eleven convenience store to buy a sandwich. Or paying for items you found while surfing the Web on your cell phone by sending a text message.
Such futuristic exercises in the U.S. are already a reality in many Asian and European countries.
For example, Hong Kong residents can use the local subway pass, called an Octopus card, to pay for purchases at fast-food restaurants, convenience stores and vending machines. And Tokyo-based phone operator NTT DoCoMo Inc. offers mobile phones with embedded chips that can serve as either a rechargeable repository of stored money or as a credit card.
In the U.S., meanwhile, there have been only sporadic experiments in the use of next-generation payment schemes. Experts blame the slow U.S. adoption on the tentativeness of banks.
“Banks have given up ownership of some of this space and allowed third parties to proliferate,” despite apparent interest from consumers, said Ray Mulhern, president of M-Consulting Group in Charlotte, N.C.
Indeed, technology vendors are beginning to roll out such services to a few U.S. users…. Source: ComputerWorld