Mophie’s FeliCa wireless payments for Japanese iPhone owners

22nd January, 2010 by adina
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Mophie has recently promised to Japanese iPhone owners to provide the much-requested support they need to use FeliCa wireless payment system. Mophie will team up with two local firms to provide the service using the same RFID wireless as the Sony has for its standard. The add-on will let the iPhone pay for many goods, through a dedicated application. Mophie claims that shops will be able to use the system to take payments. This will be good especially for on-the-street shops where counters are not an option. The system involving the application and the peripheral will be available for the Japanese market in spring.

Mophie’s system will help the iPhone to get out of its relative niche status, due to the fact that it currently lacks FeliCa support, while many handsets produced in Japan already have it. This is more visible when talking about the overall phone business, which shows a significantly smaller share for the iPhone, because it does not work natively with FeliCa, although Apple’s device controls half of the smartphone market in the country.

The lack of 1Seg TV, which is another key feature, has been solved by a Softbank TV tuner. Although this one needs either always-on Internet connection from home or to accompany the iPhone to work, the solution was highly required, because many Japanese handsets have 1Seg built-in and they are very popular for commuters who often prefer to watch TV on their phones rather than they do it at home, due to the lack of time.


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