Toss the Wallet and Grab the Mobile.

Byline: Emily Flynn Vencat

Forgetting to take your mobile phone when you leave for work in the morning may soon be debilitating for Europeans. Sure, the vast majority of workers already rely on their mobiles for everything from listening to music, to taking pictures, to watching television, to blogging. But that's peanuts, say industry analysts, who are sure that by the end of the decade, more than half of all Europeans will be leaving their wallets, bus passes and keys at home, and instead be using their "phones" to pay for lunch, click through subway turnstiles and even gain admission to members-only sporting events.

Such services are already live in experimental pockets across the continent, which is following Asia's lead. Since October residents of Caen, France, have been able to use their mobile phones to pay for groceries and parking. This season, football fans in the Netherlands can gain entry to their favorite stadium and buy refreshments with their Nokias. In Hanau, Germany, commuters now use cell phones as bus tickets. Last month Motorola launched the M-Wallet, interactive mobile-phone software that replaces physical credit cards with tiny phone screen icons. Execs at Vodafone Group, the world's largest mobile operator, and Sony Ericsson say that they, too, have plans to incorporate payment devices into their European handsets.

Powering this compact revolution is Near Field Communication (NFC), a short-range wireless chip that can be used to transfer all sorts of data--from credit-card details to bus schedules--and can be implanted into mobile phones. When a user touches his phone to an NFC pay point--basically a wireless reader that works by contact, as opposed to Bluetooth, which works over longer distances--credit is automatically transferred. Sony and Philips, which collaborated ...