If you’ve ever spent any time in Seoul or Tokyo you’ll have no doubt seen the locals flashing their mobiles to hunt around for last-minute shopping bargains, the details of which were beamed to their screens as they stood feet from the retailer, or using the handset to pay for anything from a carton of milk to cab fare. And this was years before the iPhone and the resulting apps economy explosion. Now, in 2010, is it possible the West is finally catching up?

I ask this question as I read about Visa’s new In2Pay app that turns the iPhone into a Visa credit card. It’s actually an app plus piece of plastic, a hard case that carries a MicroSD chip reader in the bottom, MobileCrunch explains. Why the fuss of requiring the user to fit a new case to the handset? Right. The iPhone doesn’t come equipped with a chip reader.

Okay, so we’re not exactly closing the gap with our more ingenuitive neighbors to the East, but it is an important start if apps developers are to usher in next-generation mobile retailing to the masses.

Here’s a video explanation (sort of), courtesy of Visa and tech partner DeviceFidelity about how the app will function:

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