McDonalds to start mobile wallet coupons

McDonalds Japan announced today that they will start a trial launch of a new coupon service using the felica mobile wallet (osaifu-keitai) function.

it is an application based service, where you decide what you want to eat and what coupons to use all on the mobile phone, before swiping it at the reader at the register. apparently you still have to tell the server which drink you would like and whether you would like to pay by cash or by iD - DoCoMo's credit based payment system.

the trial will start in 175 stores in the Kyushu area, and will be compatible with the three main carriers; DoCoMo, au and SoftBank. if successful, we could see a roll-out to the main cities by the summer and nationally (all 3,800 stores) during 2009.