Apparently according to a report by O2, 9 out of 10 people who took part in their six-month trial were happy to pay for stuff using their mobile phone, instead of the traditional credit card. The technology, called field communications technology or NFC for short, works by waving or touching a mobile phone against a reader.

The technology has been tested widely across Europe and has infact apparently been in use in Japan for years now, although the take up over there accounted for less than 1% of all retail sales in 2006.

Unfortunately though the takeup here might be quite slow though due to the number of people involved in actually making it happen, and the length of time it would take to re-coup the costs and make it a worthwhile replacement for a traditional credit card transaction.

One very neat application for the technology would be paying at parking meters. You could then be sent a text message when your parking was running out. A very handy feature, although I’m sure it wouldn’t be too popular with the NCP tax collectors! 😉

You can read the full article on the Reuters website here.