GLOBAL – With all the excitement of last week’s The Way We Live Next event, an interesting titbit of news eeked out without us noticing (punish us now!). Regulars will know all about our penchant for all things touchless (and our apparent Haphophobia) so we’re treating the news as good that Visa and Nokia are working together to bring Visa payment and “payment related services” to new devices, starting with the soon to be available 6212 Classic.

Five micro apps will be available including contactless payment (using NFC), remote payments, money transfer, alerts and notifications (aren’t the last two the same? ed.) We’re still in trial mode here though, so don’t expect a call from your bank offering you a new device any time soon (in fact, in today’s climate, don’t expect to be getting any calls from your bank). Although the device will be available from next month, the service is still reliant on banks’ desire to set up and run a trial with actual customers.

Tim Attinger, head of global product innovation at Visa Inc said:

“Mobile payments and services are one of the most vibrant areas of

innovation at Visa, as we seek to accelerate the migration from paper

forms of payment to digital money.”

On the key advantage to the move, Attinger said: “Putting Visa payments

and exciting new services into the NFC-equipped Nokia 6212 classic adds

another layer of convenience and security for Visa account holders and

Nokia customers around the world.”

Nokia’s own man leading the NFC charge, Jeremy Belostock says

“NFC-capable devices such as the Nokia 6212 classic are set to change

the way mobile phone users interact with devices and services in their

surroundings”

Now though, we find all this a little bit exciting. It basically means we’re moving a step closer to the reality of the mobile wallet. Am I ready? Honestly, I’m not sure. I like the idea and I’m thinking that if I wanted to remove one thing from my pocket then it’d be my wallet (rather than my phone). So in that instance, yes, I’m ready. Now how about NFC in my car (and maybe my house) so I could get rid of my keys too. That’d be neat, huh!