Over the years, through what I consider incompetent marketing, Bluetooth was relegated for use as a wireless earpiece technology and not much else. The PAN was dead as a doornail and my take on the phone as a credit card fell by the wayside. For the moment.
But good ideas can't be killed. But this "good idea" isn't about the convenience of paying with a phone swipe, but the idea of running your tab through the phone company. If you think your banker is a gouger with dubious fees and no-leeway, what do you think the phone company will be like? Yes, let AT&T handle all your money for you, and see how that works out in the end.
Dvorak makes a good point: Do we really want phone companies to be involved in every type of transaction we make? Remember, they're the ones charging us $.25 per sms/mms message, which costs them literally nothing--just because they can.
As with all great technology concepts, the trouble lies in the power struggle for dividends moreso than in the support for implementation.
