Digital Home Thoughts: Reintroducing The Pay Phone!

"On Thursday, Intuit and Mophie (maker of the JuicePack battery for iPhone) will introduce the Complete Credit Card Solution, which fits over the iPhone 3G and 3GS like the JuicePack and has a credit-card reader that uses Intuit's 18-month-old GoPayment mobile payment software. It will be available as an iPhone accessory in Apple Stores."

Around the world, phones have been used in various ways to act as payment devices. From adding charges to your phone directly to adapters that you can swipe a card, the proliferation of phones has made it possible that people may no longer need to bring their credit or debit cards with them. Of course, there is a the concern about security, and as for card readers on the phone, who wants to add that to their stylish communications device? Eventually, I think that companies will figure out a relatively secure way to handle payments through phones, and support enough devices that it will be worth while, but I still cannot figure out their greatest challenge. How to get people to stop talking on the phone long enough to actually use the phone as a payment device!