Teknovis

I came across this interesting article comparing payment methods – Comparing All The New Payment Methods – NFC, Mobile Wallet, Self Checkout, and More. It is a little dated, but still very relevant!

I must admit that I still find it weird that I never need to use my credit card PIN number in the US! All that is ever required is a pathetic attempt to repeat my signature on a touchscreen with a digital pen that feels as accurate as a hammer! Another weird thing in the US is the way that the waiter/waitress disappears for ages with my credit card when I am paying in restaurants!

I read an interesting article about the differences between mobile wallets and digital wallets today – Mobile Payments: Life Is More Secure In The Cloud. I was not aware of the distinction!

There was one argument that I did not agree with:

Look at it this way: if your phone gets stolen and all your financial information is on the device, and the thief began making transactions, it would almost be impossible to tell if it was really you. With the cloud approach your account is constantly being monitored. So, for example, if a transaction is made by you in San Francisco on your desktop computer, then 10 minutes later one is made in Paris on your phone, it will immediately be clear that something’s wrong.

The author argues that the digital wallet is more secure, because it is easy to detect the fraudulent transaction being made in diverse locations. I would argue that such fraudulent transaction are inherently impossible with a mobile wallet.

I read Irish start-up to revolutionise in-game payments at E3 last week, and I was quite impressed. Well done!

My only reservation would be that SMS feels like a fading technology to me, but perhaps it can succeed with the intended target audience!

Tags: SMS

Today I came across the first commercial deployment of an mPayment solution. At least I am not aware of any others! The service is being supplied by Orange, and more details can be found in Orange customers of Everything Everywhere get mobile payments.

I think that this is a very exciting area, and it is certainly something in which I am becoming increasingly interested. I think that there are huge opportunities for the telcos in this area, since they effectively already maintain electronic purses (or wallets :) for all of their customers. Most importantly, this is an area in which it is very difficult for over-the-top players to compete (although Apple‘s App Store has shown that it is possible).

Tags: Apple, Orange, UK