Two down, two more to go

Four months ago, one of my "educated guesses" for 2013 was the rise of BLE (something which I was writing about since mid-2012). I can tick that one off now - thank you, Microsoft.

I also predicted the rise of embedded secure element. Tick - thank you, Samsung.

Two next predictions of mine to hatch soon: NFC on iPhone (including SIM-based solution for the existing models) and biometrics (on-phone and in retail). 

I would like to add one more important prediction which is currently not on the industry's radar - truly smart smartcard. With all the hype around mobile, it's easy to forget that we have 6bn mobile phones not yet capable of being used for payments, and over 6bn "mobile payment devices" (i.e. humble cards) that perform that function really well. Link 6bn cards to 6bn mobiles and you have... something really interesting... Watch this space.