There is nothing to fear but fear itself. About ten or so years ago, when NFC (near field communication) technology had its beginnings, people were fearful of being tracked, of getting messages of “Buy this product now” (or words to that effect) and not having privacy and of being forced to let everyone else (or so it seemed) know what you purchased and when you purchased it. Now, it seems that people have adapted to and even adopted such technology.
That seems to be the findings of the “Goodbye Wallets: How Mobile Phones are Becoming the New Credit Card” infographic. It shows that there is an almost exponentially increasing amount of activity and money involved in purchases through smartphones and that there is a quadrumvirate of players: Google wallet, ISIS, Visa, and Serve.
From our research and beliefs, we feel that this will devolve to just two players: Google wallet (because it is Google, the 800-pound gorilla in the room) and Visa because it is backed by a consortium of financial services providers. ISIS was formed by three mobile service providers which have recently (February 2015) been co-opted by Google wallet. They seem to have acknowledged that “if you can’t beat them, join them”. Moreover, they suffered under a name that is the same as that of a terrorist organization. Serve probably will not appeal to those other than current American Express customers.
Likes: The “future” (2015) is intriguing. We wonder if that statistic has been realized.
Dislikes: None, this is a pretty well designed infographic.
Infographic by gplus.com