Could your cell phone become your ATM (automatic teller machine)? RBC Royal Bank seems to be moving in that direction. There’s a new mobile payment system by RBC that lets users text money from their mobile phones.

Already, more than 1,100 people have signed up for the RBC Mobex mobile payment service, which was launched last Tuesday for a trial run that wraps up in January with a consumer pilot program yet to be announced. In another technological advance in the works, RBC is lab-testing a system that would let users pay by waving their cellphones at the checkout instead of using a Visa credit card for small purchases.

It almost seems to be beyond the mobile future that Andy Rubin, Engineering Director, of Google foresees:

Smart alerts:

Your phone will be smart about your situation and alert you when something needs your attention.

Augmented reality:

Your phone uses its arsenal of sensors to understand your situation and provide you information that might be useful.

Crowd sourcing goes mainstream:

Your phone is your omnipresent microphone to the world, a way to publish pictures, emails, texts, Twitters, and blog entries.

Sensors everywhere:

Your phone knows a lot about the world around you.

Tool for development:

Your phone may be more than just a convenience, it may be your livelihood.

The future-proof device:

Your phone will open up, as the Internet already has, so it will be easy for developers to create or improve applications and content.

Safer software through trust and verification:

Your phone will provide tools and information to empower you to decide what to download, what to see, and what to share.

As Rubin mentions, already there is a incredible acceptance of the mobile phone as a necessary life support system:

There are currently about 3.2 billion mobile subscribers in the world, and that number is expected to grow by at least a billion in the next few years. Today, mobile phones are more prevalent than cars (about 800 million registered vehicles in the world) and credit cards (only 1.4 billion of those). While it took 100 years for landline phones to spread to more than 80% of the countries in the world, their wireless descendants did it in 16. So it’s safe to say that the mobile phone may be the most prolific consumer product ever invented.

Who could argue with that prognosis?

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