Instant Messaging Enabled Mobile Payments

According to an old telecom saying, no service can be considered as such, unless you can charge for it. Mobile payment (MP) is a term used to describe any payment where a mobile device is used in order to initiate, activate and/or confirm this payment. Contrary to popular belief, mobile payments do not restrict themselves to payments via mobile phone but can be made by virtually any mobile device such as Tablet PCs, PDAs, Smartphones, or even merchant-operated mobile terminals. Several approaches have been developed [1–4], but up to now none of them has managed to reach the critical mass and establish itself as a global mobile payment service. The availability of such a service will be a driving force for the development of new mobile applications, will accelerate the growth of mobile commerce, will generate new business opportunities for the mobile operators and as such will contribute to the overall economic growth [5]. Several institutions predict that, in the next few years, payment by mobile phone will become common. [1, 6]. Some go even further, naming MP as the future killer application for mobile commerce in a 2.5 G and beyond infrastructure. Mobile Payment is expected to boost both mand e-commerce as users will be able to pay for e/m content, in vending machines, use m-ticketing, reload their prepaid cards Over the Air (OTA), do m-shopping and pay in real and virtual Points of Sale (POS). With today’s mobile and wireless networking technologies such as GPRS, UMTS and WiFi, the Internet and its services are available to almost any kind of end-device. It is therefore an evolutionary step that many applications undertake, appearing in a mobile version that takes into account the limitations set by the end-devices such as memory, speed, capacity and connectivity. Most of the mobile payment approaches try to use widely available phone features in order to address a wide customer base. Therefore, most of them are based on SMS, but some use a combination of SMS and IVR (Interactive Voice Response) for user authentication. Some more advanced approaches take into account the last technical developments in mobile devices and make use of protocols such as IrDA and Bluetooth, while