Edy Money is in Your Pocket???

No, no, no! Not EDDIE Money the rock star! We’re talking about the Panasonic P900i cell phone along with the Edy money-transfer service. Both are available through wireless provider DoCoMo in Japan. Unfortunately, Panasonic no longer sells cell phones in the U.S., nor is the Edy service currently availabe in the States. While there will always be new phones coming out, DoCoMo’s partnership with Cingular could result in the Edy service eventually becoming available a litte closer to home.

Through DoCoMo’s 3G Foma network, Edy provides “e-money” to subscribers, allowing them to purchase items at convenience stores, coffee shops and other retail outlets. Currently, there are over 30,000 such participants. Founder and CEO of Neotony, Joi Ito has this to say about his P900i and Edy combo:

The Web browsing and e-mail are noticeably faster than on my previous phone, which didn’t use DoCoMo’s advanced Foma network, and the P900i supports Flash and Java applications. The phone also includes a mobile wallet feature that allows you to pay for things with your phone and Edy e-money. I actually used it to buy an iced coffee yesterday. Several buildings that I go to regularly are Edy-fied–convenience stores, coffee shops, parking garages, etc. The Foma network allows me to roam in countries like Singapore, the United Kingdom, and Australia that use UMTS, a compatible 3G technology.

We’re looking forward to the day when we can stop seeing how much money we actually spend on Starbucks each morning and just have it discreetly tucked away into our monthly cell phone bill. Bring it on, Edy!!

This entry was posted on Friday, August 19th, 2005 at 10:19 pm and is filed under Communication, CoolGear.Quote from August 2005 issue of Business 2.0 magazine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.