Industry News

ARC Group, a U.K.-based analyst firm, predicts wireless technology will be used in 38 percent of the world’s vending machines in 2006, up from 4 percent in 2001. Take, for example, C-Mode machines. Coca-Cola and Japanese wireless carrier NTT DoCoMo in September launched the first test of such machines. Users wave their mobile phones over a sensor on the front of the C-Mode machines. The buyer gets a soda, and is billed for the drink via his phone bill. The machines also sell concert tickets via a wireless phone.