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Pocket Change 把手机变成钱包

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The race is on to transform your smartphone into your wallet  将智能型手机变身为钱包的竞赛方兴未艾

The Japanese call it osaifu keitai (cell-phone wallet). Flash your phone virtually anywhere you go for almost any purchase and it’s automatically logged into a digital expense report. Eat frequently at McDonald’s? Tap your phone to pay and your all-in-one debit card/receipt tracker/loyalty program may instantly offer you 10 percent off. Today, if you want to enjoy these benefits, you have to go to Japan. But after years of talk, wireless carriers, banks, startups and handset makers are now actively working to transform Americans’ cell phones into mobile wallets. The goal: to snag a share of the processing fees associated with the $3.2 trillion in annual retail credit-card charges, and to turn the $1.2 trillion in cash and check spending into digital transactions.

日本人称之为osaifu keitai（手机钱包）（译注：osaifu指钱包，而keitai指携带，意指行动装置的可移植性，最早为NTT DoCoMo公司所推出的电子货币包机制，能透过手机来操作）。几乎无论你去到哪里，买任何东西，只要将手机刷一下，它就会自动登入电子支出报告。常在麦当劳吃东西？用手机轻触一下付款，你的全方位记账卡／收据记录器／酬宾方案（译注：loyalty指常客的忠诚度，亦即针对常客消费所提供的额外好康方案）可能立即就会提供九折优惠。如今如果你想要享受这些好处，就得到日本去。不过，经过多年的讨论后，无线通信业者、银行、新创公司和手机制造商现正积极致力于将美国人的手机变身为行动钱包，目标是在与信用卡每年零售消费额三兆二千亿美元相关的手续费上抢着分一杯羹，并将一兆二千亿美元的现金与支票支出转变成电子交易。

A new era for credit cards  信用卡的新纪元

For the past five-plus years, Visa and MasterCard have used near-field communications (NFC) chips in tap-to-pay credit cards and key fobs. Now they’re embracing mobile phones as well.

过去五年多来，威士忌及万事达卡已经将近场通讯（简称NFC）（译注：或称近距离无线通信、近端通讯）芯片应用于感应式付款的信用卡及密钥卡上。现在他们也欣然接纳手机付款了。

“Consumers already use phones for online payments,” says Josh Peirez, MasterCard Worldwide’s chief innovation officer, referring to download songs and software. “The goal is to get them comfortable doing the same thing in the physical world.” Nokia has announced that it will include NFC chips in all its 2011 smartphones, effectively forcing Apple, Research in Motion and other rivals to follow suit.

「消费者已经使用手机进行在线付款。」万事达卡全球创新长乔许．裴瑞兹说，他指的是下载歌曲及软件。「我们的目标是让消费者在实体世界里也能自在地做同样的事情。」诺基亚已经宣布将在其2011年所有智能型手机内置入NFC芯片，有效地迫使苹果公司、动态研究（译注：加拿大公司，为黑莓机制造商）及其他对手跟进。

“…. Demand is growing,” says Gerhard Romen, Nokia’s director of mobile financial services, “and full implementation is what makes a technology go forward.” Analysts estimate NFC will become ubiquitous within the next three to five years, which will give wireless carriers newfound leverage in determining the future of the mobile wallet.

「……需求正在成长，」诺基亚行动金融服务主管杰哈．罗门表示：「全面履行安装才能推动这项科技。」分析师预估NFC在未来三至五年间会变得无所不在，让无线通信业者在决定行动钱包的未来时，有了新筹码（译注：leverage原为杠杆作用，此指可资利用的优势或影响力，引申为筹码）。

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pocket change 小钱或口袋里的铜板零钱

flash [flæʃ] v. 飞驰，掠过 to appear or occur suddenly

log [lɔg] v. 正式记录〔事件﹑事实等〕to enter into a computer the information required to begin a session

tap [tæp] v. 轻拍，轻叩，轻敲

startup [ˋstɑrtˋʌp] n. 新创立的公司

key fob [fɑb] 钥匙坠大小的存储器 a small device with a built-in USB flash drive used for data storage or identification

fob [fɑb] n. 表袋；短表炼或其坠饰

ubiquitous [juˋbɪkwətəs] adj. 普遍存在的﹐ 无处不在的

leverage [ˋlɛvərɪdʒ] n. 影响 positional advantage; power to act effectively

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Indeed, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon are reportedly working on a joint-payments initiative.

的确，美国电话电报公司、Sprint、T-Mobile及Verizon（译注：均为行动电讯业者）据报正在研究一项共同付款的计划。

“Not only do they distribute the physical devices and ‘own’ millions of customers,” says Philip J. Philliou, of payments-consulting firm Philliou Selwanes Partners, “but they also understand how to do payments – billings, collections, maintaining accounts – on a massive scale.”

「业者不但普及实体装置，『拥有』数百万名顾客，」付账顾问公司PSP的菲利普．J．费利尔说：「也了解如何执行规模庞大的付款作业，包括立帐、收帐及管理账户。」

Shopping goes to a new level  购物付款到达新境界

The excitement surrounding the mobile wallet’s potential is so fevered that in addition to carriers and credit-card networks, now banks, tech giants and startups are all eager to lay claim to some part of this potentially huge new ecosystem. PayPal already lets users send money via text message, and Osama Bedier, its VP of mobile platforms and new ventures, envisions a service that stores gift cards and alerts customers when they’re near a merchant. This past summer, mobile startup Loopt launched its Loopt Star program, an über digital-rewards card for such brands as Starbucks and Gap. U.S. Bank is working with Infosys to move beyond a basic banking app: It’s developing a location-based concierge so smart (and potentially creepy) that it can offer a shampoo discount to shoppers browsing the hair-care aisle. As NFC tech proliferates, says Dominic Venturo, U.S. Bank’s chief innovation officer, “we’ll be able to make a business case for services that are even better.”

行动钱包的潜力掀起令人兴奋的巨大热潮，除了通讯业者与信用卡网络之外，现在连银行、科技巨擘及新创企业都急于在这个深具潜力的新兴生态系统里抢占一席之地。PayPal（译注：提供网络交易支付平台的公司）已经让使用者可透过简讯付款，该公司行动平台暨新创事业部门副总裁奥萨玛．贝迪尔预见到一种服务，可以储存储值卡（译注：或称礼物卡，因可被当成礼物转送他人使用而得名），并在消费者接近特约商店时加以提醒。今年刚过的这个（译注：2010年）夏天，行动新创公司Loopt推出Loopt Star方案，这是针对星巴克、Gap之类的品牌提供的超级数字优惠卡。美国银行（译注：U.S. Bank，或译美国合众银行）正和Infosys公司（译注：印度软件科技巨擘）合作让一种基础的银行应用程序更上一层楼：正开发一种以所在地理位置为基础的顾客服务，这种服务非常聪明（有可能令人毛骨悚然），甚至可以当购物者在护发产品走道上浏览时，提供洗发精折扣。美国银行创新长多米尼克．范图若表示，随着NFC技术的激增普及，「我们将能以甚至更佳的服务来开创商机。」

This year, eBay expects U.S. consumers to buy roughly $1.5 billion worth of goods using its smartphone apps. It’s a short leap, then, to using that same handset to pay at the Target in your neighborhood shopping center. “From the customer’s point of view,” says Robert Hedges, a partner at the financial-services consultancy Mercatus, “the question is: When is the banking industry going to catch up with us?”

eBay公司预期美国消费者今年会使用该公司的智能型手机应用程序购买价值大约十五亿美元的商品。那么，只要再跃进一小步，消费者就可以使用同一只手机在住处附近购物中心的Target商店（译注：美国连锁折扣店）付款了。「从顾客的角度来看，」金融服务顾问公司莫卡特斯的合伙人罗伯．黑吉兹说：「问题在于银行业要什么时候才赶得上我们？」

－by Dan Macsal

单词发音

Vocabulary Focus

expense report 支出报告 a record of money spent while working that the employer usually reimburses

snag [snæg] v. 抓住 to obtain or catch something by acting quickly (informal); Informalto catch unexpectedly and quickly

follow suit (idiom) 跟着做, 照别人的方式去做; 学样 to do the same as someone else has just done

implementation [͵ɪmpləmɛnˋteʃən] v. 安装 启用, 实行 the process of putting a plan or system into operation

fevered [`fivɚd] adj. 发烧的, 激动的 unnaturally excited or active

lay claim to 宣称有; 声称…的权力 to say that one owns or has a right to something

creepy [ˋkripɪ] adj. 令人毛骨悚然的 strange or unnatural; frightening

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envision [ɪnˋvɪʒən] v. 想象，展望

über 超级; 极度 used before nouns to mean “extreme” or “extremely good/successful”

concierge [͵kɑnsɪˋɛrʒ] n. 门房; 服务员

proliferate [prəˋlɪfə͵ret] v. 激增﹐ 扩散

leap [lip] n. 跃过的距离 the distance covered in a leap; distance jumped

MasterCard Tap & Go™Payment System Enhances Commuter Experience

Your phone will replace your wallet