Brett,
Absolutely. Replace the traditional POS with Mobile based alternatives. Create an alternative to traditional card links payments. Create a new trusted wallet for payment.
But there's a reason why 'Visa' and Banks (and Operators) move slowly, and its because they don't need to move fast. There is no compelling event, or rise in serious competition and so they continue in their cartels, and long may the gravy train last (they say). Spread a little FUD and you can add another 10 years on. As you point out - tech is not the problem.
The announced Google wallet leverages the current payment system, rather than competing with it, for now. Perhaps Apple will make a more aggressive play, but even with 250m devices they are not ubiquitous by a long shot and Android grows stonger too. PayPal is another option, but they seem dormant too.
10 Jun 2011 17:04 Read comment
Spot on I think. Google have managed to do what many MNOs have not managed, or are too cautious to try - which is work with the incumbent card payment providers and allow them to continue to process the payment. Google see the value in other things around the payment itself, whereas most Operators are competing to have the payment applied to their customer billing relationship (and then worrying about their risk).
The MNO trials of NFC seem to be more about dipping a toe in the water and selling a few NFC enabled Smartphones, than a serious m-payments offering (no MNO wallet).
09 Jun 2011 13:10 Read comment
Hi Killian,
I assume you are ignoring the obvious? Up until the Apple AppStore, every piece of mobile content, mainly ringtones but also games, music and apps, was typically consumed via Premium SMS - indirectly placing the charge on your mobile account (pre or post paid). Games and Voting services added to that. SMS and PSMS aggregation is huge business as a result. Then along came Apple with a parallel (credit card backed) iTunes payment channel and then Google Android Market did the same. Only Nokia Ovi tackled Carrier Billing, but then messaging based billing still dominates.
Don't forget that in our own UK, all the Mobile Operators agreed on Payforit as the payment framework for off portal content payments. Initially based on the side-line PSMS billing, they now have payments APIs which allow granular price points and crediting as well as payment by mobile from Web storefronts (you supply your phone number and verify it).
So, whereas MPESA focuses on P2P payments (a need which I agree does not exist greatly in developed markets) the infrastructure to support much slicker mobile payments is there. My point about the NFC wave of initiatives is that none of them are so far are leveraging that capability. The reason, I believe, is that the banks have the upper hand in the pillots, holding the transaction capture at the POS and will (for now) be processing those transactions via the traditional card payment networks. But look at players like the Square - turning an iPAD into a POS terminal no less and leveraging NFC that way. This sums it up nicely: https://www.finextra.com/blogs/fullblog.aspx?blogid=5349
Then you have the anticipated Google Wallet. Not what I was thinking it would look like, but I think they are managing to drive that invividual MNO brands could not - getting the Banks to participate and open up access to the POS/payments capabilities but injecting their wallet. https://www.finextra.com/news/fullstory.aspx?newsitemid=22597
04 Jun 2011 22:23 Read comment
Yes that's unnerving. Its one of the reasons I do not just have a couple of passwords for the many sites/systems that need them and as a result I have to have a password vault to store them all. I am a big fan of OneTimePassCodes and would much prefer to use the same token for many sites. But it relies on the 'something you hold' factor. Imagine a token-in-the-cloud ? So you could get a OTP for any online service without carrying the physical thing. But how to protect the cloud token :)
27 May 2011 14:10 Read comment
Interesting. I can thumbs-up my own comment! I thought I tried this with News thumbs-ups and it didn't allow me, so maybe there is some check missing on the Blog comment link?
24 May 2011 12:49 Read comment
Fair enough, I liked the 'product review'. In defence of the port approach, there is a lot to be said for familiarity. I like to use my mobile to access web sites, and the nicest thing is that I know where things are located on the page. Yes I have to pinch zoom, but the familiarity means I barely need to be able to read half the page! And orientation worked OK for me too.
Compared to a dedicated mobile app, where half the options are removed, it looks like another bank let alone page layout. I've not really tried my iPad, nor an aPad I have - maybe later.
I would agree the apps seem to be faster though. There is something about banks and slow web sites.
24 May 2011 12:22 Read comment
Cool. Infamy at last. I think I inadvertently already used the feature on another blog item :)
24 May 2011 12:10 Read comment
How about putting a 'Robin Hood tax button' on the ATM to allow customers to select if they want the bank to apply Robin Hood Tax on the transaction. That tiny amount of course comes from the bank margins, not straight from the customer account.
Putting a small bank levy on all ATM txns would be a marginal impact but make a nice contribution to that scheme.
24 May 2011 09:17 Read comment
Well at least here the PIN is optional, and redundant if you use a phone PIN.
But then, taking your NFC enabled credit card out from a wallet would be quicker anyway. As would paying cash, assuming small txns!
The point is, this is just transferring carrying the credit card from your wallet to your phone. The rest is the same except now you have a separate Prepay wallet account as well. The Orange Shop Web was off air last night so I couldn't check it then, but it looks like that balance (wallet) is held at BC. Apart from the NFC chipset and the Managing App, I am not sure the phone is doing anything else but hosting.
23 May 2011 14:54 Read comment
Another NFC story...
...the launch proposition will use a secure SIM-based approach to mobile payments...
Does this really mean that NFC is embedded in the SIM Card and this is yet another alias to a PrePay Barclaycard? In which case this is not what I call a Mobile Payments. Its still a card payment. I'm interested to get more detail before analysing further though. Can a user transfer balance from their mobile prepay account to the wallet, and vice versa for example.
20 May 2011 22:51 Read comment
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