Certain models of cells phones by Docomo and AU in Japan act both as your phone and you're credit / debit card. The technology is driven by contactless IC cards.
Vending machines, ticket wickets and even some bullet trains now have the IC proximity sensors to detect a nearby phone. This technology is espeically prevelant in train stations throughout the Tokyo area. With the ticket wickets, you just pass your phone over the sensor and you are charged, no confirmation or PIN required. According to the Docomo site, you can either opt in for a debit style account or a credit card account. There is a disclaimer that if the amount being charged exceeds a certain level a PIN will be required. Docomo is calling these new fangled cell phones: cell phone wallets.
So to answer the question above, they can't really. Just hang on to that cell phone real, real tight.
The possibility of Google loosing its effectiveness as a brand name due to generalization could go two ways as I see it. On the one hand you have brands like those mentioned above that have lost their recognition as a brand name completely (I had no idea about escalator) and then you have brands like Coke. Let's take a look at Coke as a noun. Fortunately for Coke, it's only generically used in the South as far as I or http://www.popvssoda.com/ can tell. I don't think they have to worry about their brand name going the way of escalator for the entire United States. However, within the South they have suffered something of a setback. On the other hand, in Japan they use the generic word cola (kora) to mean a Coke-a-Cola, an interesting reverse of a generic word being used only to point to a specific product. Maybe Google will one day have the good fortune of being on a one to one relationship with the word "search". *shudder* Although, that is highly doubtful.
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Certain models of cells phones by Docomo and AU in Japan act both as your phone and you're credit / debit card. The technology is driven by contactless IC cards.
Vending machines, ticket wickets and even some bullet trains now have the IC proximity sensors to detect a nearby phone. This technology is espeically prevelant in train stations throughout the Tokyo area. With the ticket wickets, you just pass your phone over the sensor and you are charged, no confirmation or PIN required. According to the Docomo site, you can either opt in for a debit style account or a credit card account. There is a disclaimer that if the amount being charged exceeds a certain level a PIN will be required. Docomo is calling these new fangled cell phones: cell phone wallets.
So to answer the question above, they can't really. Just hang on to that cell phone real, real tight.
The theory that applies to this nicely: The Red Queen
And the entire book on it: The Red Queen : Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature
The possibility of Google loosing its effectiveness as a brand name due to generalization could go two ways as I see it. On the one hand you have brands like those mentioned above that have lost their recognition as a brand name completely (I had no idea about escalator) and then you have brands like Coke. Let's take a look at Coke as a noun. Fortunately for Coke, it's only generically used in the South as far as I or http://www.popvssoda.com/ can tell. I don't think they have to worry about their brand name going the way of escalator for the entire United States. However, within the South they have suffered something of a setback. On the other hand, in Japan they use the generic word cola (kora) to mean a Coke-a-Cola, an interesting reverse of a generic word being used only to point to a specific product. Maybe Google will one day have the good fortune of being on a one to one relationship with the word "search". *shudder* Although, that is highly doubtful.