Nokia to roll out its mobile Money platform

Nokia has been quite busy this week. In advance of Nokia World 09, the company introduced its first PC in more than 18 years and two new handsets (the 5800 navigation edition and the 5230.) Today, the Finnish mobile phone leader introduced Nokia Money, a mobile banking platform that will continue the company's advancement into the "wallet phone" model.

Working in cooperation with Obopay, Nokia Money will let users buy merchandise and pay bills with their mobile device.

"Rural consumers will particularly benefit from money transfers and, for urban consumers used to online services, we are enabling services such as payment of utility bills, purchase of train and movie tickets, top-ups, all through their mobile phones. Nokia Money is simple to use, secure and available across different operator networks and on virtually any mobile phone." said Teppo Paavola, Nokia's vice president in charge of corporate business development.

As with its other announcements this week, Nokia did not go into any detail into the methods behind Nokia Money -- most notably, whether it will be a contactless method of payment. Looks like it will be yet another topic of discussion at Nokia World 09 in Germany next week.