CableLabs recently announced that Motorola's "M-Card" has joined Scientific Atlanta's offering in finally earning the organization's coveted "qualified" status, paving the way for such great functionality as picture-in-picture on compatible TVs and multi-channel recording for properly-equipped DVRs.

ENGADGET: CableLabs approves Motorola's multi-stream CableCARD

Although the M-Card does improve upon current-gen CableCARDs by delivering access to more than one channel at a time, it is still classified as a version 1.0 device, and therefore won't allow the bi-directional communication necessary for on-demand or pay-per-view goodness.

ENGADGET: CableLabs approves Motorola's multi-stream CableCARD

"I'm not sure everyone wants a card that will dominate their lives, " says Mondex co-founder Graham Higgins.

CNN: ASIANOW - Asiaweek

Moreover, Ready believes that a new generation of payments companies will lead m-commerce just as PayPal and three others took over e-commerce payments from traditional credit card payment processors.

FORBES: Braintree Wants to Make Mobile Payments History