Cell phones are quickly become the center of mobile life. Not only are cell phones being used for personal health monitoring but the Chicago Times is reporting that Chicago residents may soon be able to pay for their public transportation by swiping their cellphone over a scanner.
Chicago’s public transportation authority is currently investigating the possibility of allowing passengers to use their cell phones to replace tickets. Using cell phones instead of tickets simplifies the process and makes life easier on daily commuters. And since cell phones can be waived over a scanning device to make payment, it would probably eliminate expenses for the Chicago Transportation Authority.
Savings simply from reducing the number of tickets printed would be about $650,000 per year.
Cell phones are the perfect technology for this kind of convergence. After all, more people carry cell phones than credit cards or bank cards. So why duplicate efforts when we could just carry one thing instead of multiple things? We expect this trend to continue and that people will be able to pay for more and more things with their cell phones in the future.
