Four major corporate brands came together to launch a contactless mobile phone payment pilot system in Singapore. The pilot starts in May and lasts for three months.

CORP TALK: That’s a lot of companies in one service but Citibank Singapore and Visa have announced the launch of the Citi M1 mobile Visa payWave payment pilot in Singapore — a first in Singapore where the mobile phone can also double up as a credit card.

While the idea isn’t new in other parts of the world, what’s unique here is that the Citi Visa pilot is supported by local telecom provider M1, where selected Citi M1 Platinum Visa cardholders can pay for purchases using a Nokia 6212 classic at more than 750 merchant locations across the country. Merchants include The Coffee Connoiseur (tcc), Ichiban Boshi, Popular book store, retail outlets and music shops like Gramophone.

The three-month pilot will involve up to 300 selected Citi M1 Platinum Visa cardholders starting from May, where each cardholder will be furnished with a Nokia 6212 classic. The phone itself is equipped with a Near Field Communication (NFC)-enabled chip. Purchasers simply need to pay for an item by waving the phone over a contactless reader at the point of sale counter.

The good thing about the pilot program is that it allows users to turn on one of three security payment options on their Nokia 6212 classics. They are Always (no confirmation or passcode required), By Confirmation (user acknowledgement required) and With Passcode (a 4-digit numeric passcode is needed before payment is approved).

For further information with regards to the Singapore government’s efforts to promote more NFC-related mobile services in the country, click here. (Editor opinions: 1)

Vijay Anand, Editor, HardwareZone.com

Vijay (HardwareZone.com): While the trial limits users to the use of just the NFC-enabled Nokia 6212 Classic phone, the scheme will only be adopted when the majority of mobile phones are NFC-enabled. But that’s a thought for another day when the infrastructure and mobile makers are ready to roll them out in full force.

The concept of payments via the mobile phone is a logical step forward as consumers rely more and more of their mobile phones than ever before. Just think about how many times you would have forgotten your wallet when leaving home versus forgetting your mobile phone. (more…)

SHOWCASE: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. announced the launch of two new full touch screen mobiles — the S5600 and S5230.

The Samsung S5600 has a 2.8-inch touch screen with 7.2Mbps HSDPA support, TouchWiz UI, a 3-megapixel camera and 80MB memory.

At only 11.9mm thin, the Samsung S5230 has a 3-inch WQVGA screen and 50MB of internal memory.

The S5600 is a 2.8-inch QVGA full touch screen phone with the TouchWiz User Interface. With it, mobile widgets can be dragged and placed on the screen for one-click access. The accelerometer sensor within makes it easier when surfing via its HSDPA 7.2Mbps connectivity. 

There’s also the ‘Gesture Lock’ feature, where users can unlock the phone and execute the menu directly by drawing an alphabet letter on the screen. The S5600 comes with 80MB memory, microSD slot, 3-megapixel camera (with smile shot), music recognition feature and multi codec support (H.263, MPEG4, WMV). (more…)

CORP TALK: Looks like the heavily commoditized notebook market is becoming a hot consideration for the world’s largest cellphone maker. Of course, players like HP, Samsung and Sony have been in both businesses for years, so it’s no surprise that Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia might be considering a dig at it too.

According to reports from various sources, including Reuters and InformationWeek, the idea of a converging device marrying qualities of cellphones and notebooks is not too far-fetched today.

The Nokia Internet Tablet N810 is the first Nokia device to utilize its Internet Tablet OS 2008. Could it be the blueprint that would inspire Nokia's impending notebook plans? The jury's still out.

“We don’t have to look even for five years from now to see that what we know as a cellphone and what we know as a PC are in many ways converging. Today we have hundreds of millions of people who are having their first Internet experience on the phone. This is a good indication,” said Chief Executive Officer for Nokia, Mr. Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo in an interview with Finnish TV station YLE.

While it is definitely sensible for a notebook manufacturer to venture into the smartphone business (which is of course, already happening), it is a different matter when it’s the other way around, considering that the notebook market is highly saturated and extremely competitive.

David Chieng, Editor, HWM Singapore

David (HWM SG): Nokia might be trying to do something laptop-related, but not as we know it. Think about the Mobile Internet Device for a minute.

Intel has been pushing the MID platform for the past two years now, and it stands to reason that Nokia might want to expand their internet tablet product line into something a little bit bigger in size. (more…)