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Dear Derek,

It appears to me that you have missed giving the message.. by miles. Your article might have intended to say:

1. Amazon gives competition to cards and saves 3% in doing so.

2. This saving is passed to customer, which would reduce card dependency. But unfortunately you are writing about yet another card.

All said... Amazon is either myopic or deaf..or I don't know what to say...but wasting investors' money..

Balazs has identified the right difference between PoS need and payment need of a merchant. Many companies are wasting their investors' money in devising a mobile based solution, which merges PoS and Payment needs. Hardware for PoS is usually a computer, whch is also used for other purposes like inventory management, vendor management, payroll processing while mobile based payment system ask for a different device. This is where the confusion starts...and we see foolish solutions like mPoS.

Can we have a payment mobile based payment mechanism that does not need any hardware or does not interfere with hardware need for PoS...and beats MDR far below what credit card companies may offer.

I just wish banks wake up to the need of the hour...

Question to Equity Bank CEO: Why Equity Bank is not encashing on their strengths and trying to compete with Telco's strengths. Bank have and would continue to have significant advantage in mobile based payments...be it meaningless wallet or else. 

Wallets would survive only in that country where cost of banking transaction is high and user needs cheaper mechanism. All concepts like unbanked, financial inclusiveness are gimmick. It is laughable that in US/UK, we expect a person to own a mobile but not have a bank account. Folks... which world are we living in and whom are we fooling. Africa is a success story for wallets because banks are ripping African people with all sort of obnoxiously high charges/fee. They created their own enemy and now amusingly Equity Bank has applied for VNO license. I am surprised...who advises such moves.

They have an existing infra-structure, wherein they can beat any Telco on their own turf....and bingo... with zero cost of transaction. Are Kenyan banks aware of it...?

Unfortunately, rest of the world is disillusioned by mPesa and similar examples and they are burning investors' money...offering a wrong solution to an unknown problem.

Need is not a wallet...but need is a payment system. I hope wise people can make out the huge difference. mPesa is not behaving as a wallet...but it has become mode of payment...for all purposes.