iPhone 5 is allegedly going to equip NFC controllers in its hardware, and many people in the mobile phone industry are expecting that the era of wallet-phone will be coming just around the corner.
However it is well-known fact, but wallet-mobile phone is nothing new in the mobile scene in Japan.
Sony developed NFC chip in 1988, and named it Felica. Sony tried to dominate the digital money market by issuing its own digital money card called Edy. Though you may be still able to see the logo of Edy at a cashier of major convenience store, Edy business has not expanded as expected.
At the same time back then, various mobile phones which equipped Felica IC chip were launched, but it could not dominate the market neither.
The most prevailed Felica card is not as a mobile phone, but prevailed as a card which is similar size and shape of credit card when railway companies issued the card.
Since then, this type of card expanded exponentially.
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So, the real winner of the past business of NFC was a railway company, not mobile phone companies, nor the device companies.
Sony was also a winner of this Felica business because it earned huge profit from the patent revenue. But the NFC standard that is to be equipped in the future mobile phones is new standard and Sony can no longer expect the reveue from there.
What we can see from the scene in Japan is that though new NFC standard is welcomed mostly by mobile phone companies, still other social infrastructure companies, such as railway, airlines, or taxi companies may find the business chance in NFC and dominate the market.
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