Mashka - That's right. The merchants would use mobile wallets to integrate back-end systems, and track customer activity. They'll offer financial incentives for customers to use them.
But consumers won't drive adoption of this technology.
Well, if they can save some money- even 10-50 cents, using mobile wallets, people may start to use it- and then... A friend recommends to a friend, to a friend and so on...
Thanks right, Mitch. I remember. Imagine how many Starbucks lattes would be purchased, as well as whatever else with a swipe of a mobile wallet on Nicole's iPhone!
Joanne Goldman - Our former editor-in-chief, Nicole Ferraro, had her iPhone stolen out of her hands a while ago. It happened on a busy New York street; a guy came by on a bicycle and plucked it from her hand. Here's her story.
"The impetus must surely be the possibility of doing everything with one device. We may not be there yet, but we are going that way."
I think this is the key point, Kim. Either the infrastructure will be created to support the mobile wallets and/or there will need to be a bridge between the current system and the mobile wallets.
As Robert effectively points out, otherwise we will be sitting on a train at the end of a track without the ability to move forward.
"The impetus must surely be the possibility of doing everything with one device. We may not be there yet, but we are going that way."
I think this is the key point, Kim. Either the infrastructure will be created to support the mobile wallets and/or there will need to be a bridge between the current system and the mobile wallets.
As Robert effectively points out, otherwise we will be sitting on a train at the end of a track without the ability to move forward.
"The impetus must surely be the possibility of doing everything with one device. We may not be there yet, but we are going that way."
I think this is the key point, Kim. Either the infrastructure will be created to support the mobile wallets and/or there will need to be a bridge between the current system and the mobile wallets.
As Robert effectively points out, otherwise we will be sitting on a train at the end of a track without the ability to move forward.
Watch commuters rushing in to a Starbucks or other location to buy their morning coffee, and I think it makes perfect sense for them to use a mobile wallet. A routine purchase, as Mitch noted several posts ago, combined with rushing somewhere, makes a mobile wallet a good choice for people who already have the device out. No digging in purses, grabbing cash or credit cards from a back pocket, backpack or briefcase. Then there's the juggling afterward of storing away a credit card. A mobile wallet on a device that's already available adds convenience and saves valuable time in a hectic commute.
On the other hand, people don't carry their wallets as freely around as they do mobile devices. Imagine the added incentive to steal a mobile device if it also can be used as a wallet? How many loyalty points is that risk worth?
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The smartphone market reached a significant milestone, a breakthrough that may cause vendors to celebrate but could strain the capabilities of IT service desks.
In the fall of 2011, around 160,000 students in 190 countries enrolled in a Stanford-sponsored online course about artificial intelligence. About 23,000 completed the course and got certificates, including 248 who got a perfect score. The university offered the same course the old-fashioned way to students sitting in Stanford classrooms. None of the those students got a perfect score.
As Mitch Wagner discussed today, Yahoo is acquiring Tumblr. The big Internet debate at the moment is whether Tumblr will be good or bad for Yahoo. Regardless of their stances on the future of Yahoo itself, many claim that Yahoo will somehow ruin Tumblr.
Has China stolen a march on the West, developing an Internet architecture that is not only based on IPv6, but is also inherently secure from both internal and external attack?
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
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