We keep hearing about ‘contactless’ payment with cell phones – you know, walk up to the kiosk, wave your phone by the register and be on your way. One of the challenges, or so it would seem, would be waiting for the rollout of the next gen phones sporting the necessary security measures and protocols to do this. If the SanDisk Corp has its way they’ll put all this ’poppycock’ to bed. In fact, you’ll just run to the store and pick up a compatible microSD memory card that contains the necessary credits (money) and hardware. Known as SmartMX, SanDisk has already began a pilot program on the microSD card format, and hopes for a “broader commercial rollout by 2007â€?.

“Today, consumers purchase SanDisk flash cards to expand their mobile phone storage capabilities for pictures, music and videos, and, thanks to TrustedFlash technology, they can enjoy premium content such as music and movies. Tomorrow, they will also use TrustedFlash cards with SmartMX technology to expand the phone’s security capabilities and host a variety of NFC applications to purchase tickets, buy a cup of coffee and make other small purchases,� said Farshid Sabet, Senior Director of Mobile Content and Security Solutions at SanDisk, in a statement.

SanDisk, Philips join forces on cell phone payment [EETimes]