The modern day mobile phone, with its far-reaching coverage and millions of apps, is already an amazingly useful device. Yet innovators in the field of finance and health care want to give the cell phone a whole new set of jaw-dropping functions.

The new technologies will pit payment giants Visa and MasterCard against wireless carriers and start-ups in a race to create a platform that allows consumers to purchase goods, distribute money and manage accounts using only their smart phones. The stakes transcend the technology and strike at the heart of who will retain market dominance over $6.70 trillion in payment transactions.