As the United States and other countries reel from the financial crisis, consumers and businesses wonder whether they'll have much left in their wallets. And speaking of wallets: Could our leather wallets be replaced or supplemented by plastic and metal cellphone "wallets" for banking, credit card transactions, store coupons, and other database retrievals via cellular and near-field communications (NFC) technologies? I'm interested in NFC's potential to do just that.
After more than a decade of discussions, we're seeing cellphones used for purchasing goods and services -- and not just in Japan. Wachovia Bank, among others, has promoted cellphone banking for checking account balances, transferring funds, and paying bills [ed. note: and that's worked out well for them]. However, with online banking via desktops and laptops, ATMs, and plain ol' voice calls to banks, Americans haven't seen much of a need for cellular.
Despite the lack of enthusiasm, more U.S. wireless banking efforts are underway. Last month, Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) began offering MyMoneyManager software that enables users to perform basic banking functions with several banks (BB&T, Citibank, IBC Bank, and PNC Bank) and via PayPal .
Although Sprint isn’t yet offering more advanced cellphone-as-wallet transactions, that's not stopping Visa USA from exploring the concept. Visa is offering three services on Google's Android mobile platform: notifications of purchases when using a credit card; offers from merchants; and location-related features.
Notifications are basic, but I'd certainly like to receive messages to check that a credit card amount was correctly entered.
Visa also is offering a mobile wallet product for Nokia's 6212 Classic phone that uses NFC -- short-range communications similar to Bluetooth. NFC's data rates are slower than Bluetooth's, but the "handshake" between two devices is typically much less than a second. NFC's range is only a few inches, but that is better for security. And NFC is often employed for "contactless payments," because anything with an NFC chipset can be waved over the device "reader" just as a barcode reader can be waved over the barcode.
In the London metropolitan area, for instance, an NFC chipset is embedded in the popular Oyster card to pay for subways, buses, light rail, and trains. An NFC trial recently concluded in London using Nokia 6131 phones in conjunction with cellular operator O2, Barclaycard Visa, and the London transportation authority, which issues the Oyster. The phone was used to pay for transportation, like the paper Oyster card, as well as to purchase goods and services, like a credit card.
Reactions were positive from most of the 500 participants in the trial, and O2 is exploring launching a commercial service within a few years.
I'm especially interested in NFC because it somewhat competes with camera phones in retrieving Internet information. Camera phones can be used to snap photos of barcodes and barcode-like images containing URLs that are transmitted to a server that sends Web page information to the phone. However, the camera doesn't always produce an image that's sharp enough to be recognized by the server's software.
Instead, a cellphone could be waved over any item with an NFC chip, and the URL would be quickly recognized and transmitted to the server. One application could be using a credit card to pay online for a hotel room and receiving a text message with a code to unlock the room via NFC -- without having to check in at the reception desk. You could pay online for a ticket to a sporting event and receive a text message with a code to unlock the NFC-enabled turnstile at the stadium.
There are many challenges for NFC, ranging from obtaining support from merchants, handset vendors, cellular operators, banks, and merchants, to ensuring payment security.
Perhaps the greatest challenge is convincing people of the value of cellular wallets.
Thanks very much for the clarification about who is and isn't confused about multitasking!
I certainly agree that many people think the digital world is too intrusive, unpleasant, harmful, etc. And, they have valid points. I will often want to do one thing at a time -- concentrate completely on a book, magazine, movie or even (gasp) a human being (until I can get sentient robots!). But I won't let the battery go dead on my phones and laptops (at least not on purpose).
As I've written, I think being always connected is a good thing, and that's indeed the future. Half the world's population already has cellular phones. But we've all got to understand how to deal with connectedness, and I assume most of us will, now and in the future.
"Smart" software already rules many financial decisions (for better and, as we all know, for worse!). I suspect that in the future, individuals will use smarter (A.I.) software for financial planning. "Quicken" just isn't going to cut it!
Its not kids that are upset with multi-tasking, its the twenty-somethings who are 'digital immigrants' who remember a life before multitasking. 'Digital natives' are used to multi-tasking and like it. People who lived before rampant multi-tasking remember the days when they had less to do, and weren't always on the go, with too many things going on at once like they are now. They may or may have gotten less done back then ( the efficiency of multi-tasking is debatable, and varies from person to person), but they remember having less to do.
People with very ordinary lives often talk about how they wish to reject this digital age, it is too much, they like the simple way things like home phones work etc. Don't want to IM when watching t.v., just want to watch t.v., one thing at a time is good enough.... Probably not a view we will find much expressed here directly very often as such people are unlikely to want to visit this blog!
Good -- and amusing/interesting -- point about giving kids chargers, cables, etc. in their backpacks, school lockers, cars, etc. to improve their productivity! I don't think anyone has ever mentioned that, although we "adults" know about keeping extra chargers at home, work, car, second homes, etc.
Yes, I know many instances where people tell the other party on the line that they have to hang up because they have a bad connection (when they don't) or just don't answer "because I didn't have a signal" (when they did).
Kids getting upset with multitasking -- that would make a great column for you! Are they really? Aren't most kids used to more multitasking than previous generations? The situation only is going to get "worse" (although I would like NASA-like control rooms in every room in my house, along with direct brain-to-computer interfaces....but that's another story).
Let's hope a phone isn't truly dead when it's loaded with financial information and you need to use it!
In the spirit of the Holidays I should point out that the somewhat accidental or subconscious nature of young people letting devices go dead means that gifting a young person with a charger, cable, or extra battery can actually considerably increase connectivity of that person.
On the other hand part of the culture is pretending that batteries have gone dead when they actually have not. The solution to that goes beyond technology!
Young people in their mid-20s are getting annoyed with multi-tasking-I think because they have seen life both ways. And whether or not they actually let their phones go dead, the fact that they can go dead provides an excuse--and it is one that is used, frequently, in current society.
Eventually as you say there will be more subtlety and nuances and fine tuning and phones going dead will seem just like something stupid that occurred in the past but no longer.
I wouldn't be surprised if in the future cellphone-based electronic payments would be possible even if the main battery dies.
I don't think Nikki's view -- or the view of her contemporaries -- represents the "future" of wireless Internet usage. It's the Throw-The-Baby-Out-With-The-Bath-Water" approach to cellphone use.
I can't believe that the youth -- who are so plugged in -- will typically and purposefully allow their phones to die just because they don't want to be reached. That's not the solution for the future. It's not even the solution for the present! It's an interim psychological step of dealing with connectness.
It is possible to (1) turn off the phone or (2) put it on "silent" mode!
I suspect that people will "evolve" to learn how to cope with 24-hour-per-day connectedness that doesn't involve letting their battery die or turning off their connections!
I suspect the future will provide smarter software to differentiate among messages so that only "important" (depending how the person defines that term) messages are allowed to go through while less important messages are silently filed.
I think future electronic wallets will have to have ways of coping with people letting devices go dead. People are getting used to letting their phone batteries go dead as a way to take a bit of a breather from the constant pressure to stay in contact and respond. I enjoy being contactable all the time because most communications I receive are positive. However I can imagine that if many of the communications were things I would rather not receive I would enjoy a time out from time to time, and having the phone go dead then provides the perfect excuse for being out of contact.
Young people especially may feel they have few other ways to turn off the flow of communications. They may not yet have the clout to insist that they not be contacted at certain times. My writing partner Nikki Olson explains:
Increasingly in today's world, the world 'remote' is used less and less. Perhaps one day it will drop out of the dictionary all together. Seems like we are always "there" through technology, never "away", or "out of range". We also know that we enjoy being able to communicate whenever we want to, so we don't want to get rid of the cell phone all together, but it is nice to feel out of touch sometimes. The key to finding the right balance between being reachable but not too reachable, can be the tendency of cell phones to die. Our excuse for being unavailable becomes 'my cell phone died'. I think a lot of people, myself included, willingly (and subconsciously) let our cell phones die to feel that release and escape from constant social interaction. At the same time, in the back of our minds, we know it is not a good excuse, that letting the phone die is a bit irresponsible. Nevertheless, it serves as a good excuse for the time being. If cell phones couldn't die, we would find another way to become unreachable.
Becoming unreachable, spontaneously, fits well with youth culture. When young , you enjoy, as you should, the days when no one is depending on you, you come and go as you please. Freedom is priceless. Daring to become unreachable, although not a big risk in modern times, is at least treated like a risk sometimes. It is no surprise that youth take up this "living on the edge" behavior of letting the phone die.
There is some kind of relationship between being attractive/appealing and being sometimes unreachable. Being too reachable, always "around", is unattractive, at any age. We have social rituals that allow us to walk that fine line between available and unavailable. Like, you never call the first day after a date, you don't want to appear too eager. Giving the impression of mystery, creating intrigue (even when there isn't any), although it seems foolish at times, is a game we all play. Cell phone mortality, being able to say 'my cell phone died', has been incorporated into this game. A bit simplistic and not easy to fine-tune, but a solution nonetheless.
At another level I guess a pretty cell phone that never died would have it all. Beauty and immortality, the deep-seated desires of all humans!
Certainly there are advantages, which is one reason I wrote the article
But
there also are many problems to using a cellular phone as a "wallet,"
as noted in the comments: Lose or break the phone and you lose your
credit cards, until things can be sorted out. If the battery dies,
your credit cards could die. If all your credit cards and banking
information is on the phone, there are significant security risks.
Can't say that I agree with you at all on this or see the reasoning. You need extra chargers cables etc. for Windows Mobile devices if you want to keep them charge everywhere and that certainly is not calculated in the initial purchase. Situation is exactly the same as with the iPhone. Cables come with devices, many of the cables you have were not purchased, it is the same with all kinds of phones. Just interesting how these considerations are changing human behavior and sense of values!
The costs of Windows Mobile are using Windows Mobile! -- bloated, sluggish and, sometimes, requiring too many clicks to initiate an action. The costs of Apple products are the higher price for many accessories.
Nothing is perfect.
An iPhone "wallet" would be elegant, easy to use and constrained by Apple's sometimes dictatorial policies. A Windows Mobile "wallet" would be more "open" but probably more prone to crashing.
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