Click and PIN
Imagine not having to carry any of the things you would normally keep in a wallet - cash, cards, ID, receipts - because your phone performed all of those functions, even more securely. That's the vision chip designer ARM and NXP semiconductors are both promoting at MWC 2010.
For this vision to become reality, to main boxes have to be ticked: security and communication. If we're to be expected to make our phones even more central to our lives than they already are, we need to totally confident about the security of the information stored on it and the transactions we make with it. Also, we need to be able to do these things wirelessly.
ARM has recently announced a strategic partnership with Giesecke & Devrient - which literally has a license to print money - to create an ultra-secure protected area in its Cortex A chip designs called TrustZone. This is designed to provide the highest level of protection for data and communication that reside in the zone.
"This will bring click and PIN to everyone" said Rob Brown of ARM's secure solutions division, explaining that it will allow secure payments for lower value transactions to be completed by merely waving your phone near a contact point, like the Oyster system on the London underground.