For years, payment geeks have promised that cell phones would soon replace the jingle of pocket change, ushering in a utopian world where consumers could buy candy bars from a vending machine with a phone call. Just dial a number on the machine, and -- BANG -- your Juicy Fruits or Fritos drop into the tray.
Those promises never materialized, but worse yet, the value proposition never materialized. More than one analyst has called mobile phone payments a solution in search of a problem. After all, when would dialing a phone number be easier than pulling out a piece of plastic?
All that may have changed this week, as Starbucks announced that it had begun accepting payments made with iPhones and BlackBerrys at most stores. A major retailer leaping into this world with both feet could send a 120-amp charge into electronic wallets -- particularly because the Starbucks 'Mobile Card' e-payments is fun, easy, relatively safe and gives consumers a reason to whip out their gadget instead of their wallet.
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