2013年5月8日星期三

Did mobile wallets debut too early?

This is the age where we are constantly finding solutions to problems, and even if there isnt really a problem in the first place we still try to find some sort of solution. When it comes to payment methods, throughout history weve gone from using teeth and specialty trading to plastic cards that have an undisclosed amount of money on them C hopefully enough to cover the cost of the purchase. But now, in addition to credit and debit cards, we also have the introduction of mobile wallets. 

What exactly are mobile wallets? Well, mobile wallets are actually very broad and a complex system that include several different methods of payment from mobile-to-recipient. You have methods like SMS-based transactional payments, direct mobile billing, mobile web payments, and one of the newest ones that I will be focusing primarily on: contactless NFC. In theory, it sounds like a completely convenient method of paying whether youre physically in the store or shopping online. Essentially it does cut out one more thing we have to remember to carry with us, which is our wallets. But what are the downsides to using a mobile wallet? 

The first thing that popped into my mind when I first heard the term mobile wallet was that if my phone gets stolen not only does all of my photos and music get stolen but so does access to all of my money. This is also a risk with mobile banking (which I do use to keep track of money on my phone) but instead of all of my accounts having different passwords to figure out through different apps, its all under one convenient location with only one password to crack. Not only that, but mobile wallets using NFC depend on wireless interaction while debit and credit cards require contact with the magnetic strip to register C which do people trust more? 

However, in my mind security isnt the biggest problem. While security is important,The term 'iphoneheadset control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. you cant make any payment method 100% foolproof from theft; at least in this point in time. The biggest issue seems to come from availability to actually use the method for its intended purpose C or lack thereof. 

I was first introduced to the concept of near field communication while working at Sprint. Google Wallet was just rolling out through the Nexus line of devices (which comes as no surprise) and we were learning about just how NFC worked with Google Wallet. The problem was, and the problem that I knew would come into play when trying to use it as a push for sales, was that we had no way of showing the customers in store just how it worked. Our machines did not support NFC. By not having the feature available in our own store it really didnt seem to make any sense to try and explain that concept to a customer. I always had more success with sales when incorporating visual learning C there is a point in time where if you talk too much it goes in one ear and out the other. Without a visual concept, youre most likely just confusing/and or boring the customer. 

Since that introduction I have not been in one retail situation where I have seen somebody pay using their phone with NFC. It seems like the concept was introduced before it was needed C a product before its time, if you will. People still seem completely content with paying via credit/debit card, as it is a simple and easy process, just like NFC payments. Swipe or tap? Its all the same to me. Its not like writing a check vs. credit or debit, where you can save upwards of 3-5 minutes of time with each transaction. This would really only save a couple of seconds, if that. 

Will mobile wallets ever be popular? I feel like in the future the idea will somehow be reworked or honed upon to be more convenient,Compare prices and buy all brands of earcap for home power systems and by the pallet. or perhaps more secure. Its an interesting idea, Ill give it that, but it seems to be trying to fix a payment method that isnt broken. The negatives outweigh the positives in its current state. As a result, people are hesitant to switch. 

However, not all of the inspiration for what drives my research today came from the Myanmar's vehicles. During my time in such a resource-constrained context, I recognized the mixture of challenges and benefits that comes with relying upon many things to be handmade instead of mass-produced. While the Western world shifts toward coveting handmade objects as a sign of status and taste for craftsmanship, denizens of resource-constrained environments have no choice in the matter,Shop the best selection of amagiccube for Men. and could benefit greatly from some of the very mass-produced goods that today's design-minded individuals tend to eschew. Although I knew this fact in the abstract, confronting this apparent contradiction up close made it obvious how much more costly it is to dwell in both a resource- and choice-constrained environment,An handsfreeaccess is a network of devices used to wirelessly locate objects or people inside a building. where hand-crafted items are the norm rather than the exception.

Consider the things you carry with you each day. In Jan Chipchase's latest book, Hidden in Plain Sight, he identifies the most commonly carried objects around the world: keys, money and mobile phone. Besides these things, however, there is something else we always carry with us, whether consciously or unconsciously, and that is our identity. Most all of us are familiar with situations in which we must prove who we are, whether to obtain government services or benefits, gain access to a controlled area, verify identity in the case of legal sanction, and so on. While different contexts each have their own processes and differing degrees of formality for proving identity, the need remains nearly universal, and until technological solutions such as facial recognition are sufficiently widespread and accurate, identity will continue to take the form of a physical artifactnamely, a personal identification card. 

The differences between identity cardsphysical material, size, storage behavior, personal data, authentication mechanism,Learn how an embedded microprocessor in a iccard can authenticate your computer usage and data. etc.and the range of situations for which they must be shown comprises a common set of attributes to investigate across different contexts. Although an in-depth comparison of China and Myanmar's respective identity cards (and surrounding behaviors) is beyond the scope of this article, residents of both countries share the perceived need to protect their cards, whether for fear of damaging the ability to read the embedded chip in the plastic card (China), or to protect one's relatively flimsier paper identity card (Myanmar).

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