Intel is working with Microsoft and Tokyo-based BitWallet to drive use of Sony's FeliCa contactless IC card technology for Internet transactions.
Intel is teaming with both Microsoft and Bitwallet - which provides the EDY contactless payment system - to triple the number of personal computers equipped with FeliCa-reading functions and double the number of Internet services compatible with the technology.
The companies also aim to double the number of online payments made using the technology within a year.
Earlier this year the US chip-maker invested Y5 billion in Bitwallet and said it would work with the firm to drive use of the EDY electronic money system - which is based on FeliCa technology - for Internet payments.
EDY enables customers to pay for purchases by waving the card over a specially-equipped reader at the point of sale, as well as via the Internet. More than 17 million EDY cards are currrently in circulation and the e-money service is available at over 31,000 retail shops and 1400 e-commerce sites in Japan.
But in fiscal 2005, 110 million transactions were settled via the EDY services, of which just two - three per cent were Internet-based payments.