"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 16:43:11 on Fri, 3 Aug
2007, tim..... remarked:
Does this mean you have to buy a new phone,

Almost certainly, Yes

The average age of phones in our household is about three years (and we
don't have any plans to buy more than one new one a year, if that, between
the four of us). Another problem is that there'll only be a very limited
range of phones with the new gadget in to start with, so if you've chosen
one because of some other set of features you wanted [1] you could well
still not get an rfid.

Adding new bits to a mobile buggers up the standby time.
And as longer standby time is the holy grail that the
networks keep demanding the extra bits don't happen
until everyone is sure that there is a need.

E.g. 10 years ago I worked for a Cambridge company whos
MD had just patented a way of integrating GPS into a phone
(you may know him?). Everyone thought that this was
going to be rolled out in a couple, of years - they are still
waiting.

tim