One of the hottest new trends in mobile services seems to be the option to make mobile payments via your cell phone. Nokia has been a leader in this area so far. A few months ago, the company partnered with Visa to begin offering NFC-enable handsets which can be used as point-of-sale Visa cards in countries around the world. Now Nokia has announced a partnership with another leading mobile payment service, Obopay, through which Nokia phones will be able to be used to make many additional types of mobile payments.

The new service from Nokia is called Nokia Money. It is a mobile payment platform that will allow Nokia users to make a variety of different types of payments through their cell phones. These payments include online bill payments, point-of-sale transactions, ticket purchases and mobile-to-mobile payment transactions. In other words, you could use the service to buy a movie ticket for you and your buddy and then he could use the service to transfer his half of the money back to you from his Nokia phone. Later that day, you could buy a coffee using the phone and then pay your utility bill from the coffee shop while sipping your drink.

Although the news is exciting, it’s nothing to get too worked up about yet. Nokia Money won’t be rolled out until sometime next year. The rollout is planned slowly, so it could take a little bit of time before the service is available in your area. Nevertheless, it points us in the direction of where mobile payments are going. People who are interested in the service may want to check out Obopay to get an idea of some of the features of the service. Learn more about Obopay from our article on popular mobile payment services.