KDDI to Adopt Mobile FeliCa for 3G

In a decision that could be a huge boost for mobile phones to become e-wallets, KDDI has decided to adopt Sony Corp’s technology in smart cards for use in third-generation mobile phones that it will develop with Hitachi Ltd. This is wonderful news for chances of the evolution of the mobile phone’s morph into one of the so-called ubiquitous devices that Sony’s Idei has been promising for longer than hack journalists can remember. The news is out that KDDI has decided to adopt Sony’s FeliCa, thus removing a major barrier to the contact less IC card’s promulgation outside of DoCoMo in Japan, and also bringing the technology into a major cdma carrier.

Excerpt from Paul Kallenders recent Viewpoint Article

Like DoCoMo, KDDI has been messing around with payment systems, notably the Kei-credit settlement system. But the fact that Sony and DoCoMo are building FeliCa as an open architecture, and that Big D has 60 percent of the domestic cell phone subscription market, AND that, from next August, it looks like all PDC as well as FOMA phones are going to be FeliCa mobile-chipped, seem to have made for a compelling argument for KDDI.