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Sunday, May 22, 2011

It's not a mobile wallet. It's just a phone.

Mark Bridge writes:

Don’t get me wrong. I’m excited about the idea of mobile payments (despite the occasional appearance to the contrary). But I think the Quick Tap launch and all this talk of a ‘mobile wallet’ is a little overhyped. And here are the three main reasons why:

1. Contactless payments have been in the UK for almost four years. This is just another type of contactless card.

2. Mobile payments have - in various forms - been with us for well over a decade. This is just another mobile payment mechanism.

3. There’s no app on your smartphone that’ll hold a condom, a couple of first-class stamps and a book of matches.

All this suggests the mobile wallet isn’t going to replace the wallet-wallet for a while.

Until buses all take mobile payments, gym lockers all take mobile payments and parking meters all take mobile payments, you'll still need cash.

Until every retailer has an NFC card reader - payWave, PayPass and the like - you'll still need conventional credit and debit cards.

And until contactless payment technology is perfect... and your phone becomes invulnerable to physical damage... you'll want some kind of back-up.

However, it’s not all bad. Leaving aside the vast number of Quick Tap Toccos that’ll be sold to curious people within the mobile industry, mobile payments are likely to become another string to your smartphone’s bow.

In the same way that my phone offers a camera if I haven’t got a ‘proper’ camera with me and a video player if I don’t need a big screen, it’ll provide a useful backup if I forget my real wallet. One day it may even replace cash payments. But the end of cash?  Not for a long while.

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1 comments on article "It's not a mobile wallet. It's just a phone."

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James Rosewell

5/23/2011 3:46 PM

Surely anyone carrying a Quick Tap phone will not be considered attractive enough by the opposite sex to need condoms? That just leaves the matches and the stamps.

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Opinion Articles

Our surveys reveal a preference for Android and right-handed phone usage

Mark Bridge writes:

In recent months we’ve run some surveys on our home page. The results make interesting reading (although we’ll happily admit they’re not likely to be representative of UK mobile users in general).

First, we asked “Which Operating System will be on your next handset?”

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Santa's bringing tablets this Christmas

Mark Bridge writes:

Santa’s bringing tablets this Christmas – and I’m not talking about the plink-plink-fizz of Alka Seltzer. These are tablet computers… and they’re going to be everywhere.

It all started with the Apple iPad; a device so widely anticipated, the TV advertisements didn’t even need to say what it did.

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DEFINITION OF MOBILE - Friday 10th September 2010

The Definition of Mobile event promises a distinctly different perspective for those interested in the future of mobile, summarising the key facts big business needs to grasp to execute a successful mobile strategy.

We'll be bringing you a summary of the key points during mid-September.

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Carnival of the Mobilists #236

The best and brightest mobile-related blogging from the last seven days is now online at MSearchGroove.com. Peggy Anne Salz, this week's Carnival host, looks at a wide range of topics – including an in-depth post from Ajit Jaokar refuting recent suggestions that the web is dead.

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When it comes to mobile phone numbers, is the USA living in the past… or showing us the future?

Mark Bridge writes:

Last week the Wall Street Journal published a feature that explained how techies in New York wanted the city’s 212 area code as part of their mobile phone numbers. This may seem strange from a UK perspective until you realise that American mobile phone numbers don’t have dedicated mobile ‘dialling codes’. Instead, they’re all prefixed with a local area code and cost the same to call as those landline numbers they mimic.

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