[ARCHIVE] More NFC Ideas – Will this ever catch on? – Circa 2008

Back in the day I consulted with a company on early concepts for NFC. Now, some years later it is interesting to re-visit those concepts and see that  I wasn’t far off (where other concepts were way off!).

Your ‘Digital Wallet’

Ditching your travel card, your loyalty card and your credit card and replacing it with your trusty phone is a scary prospect for the legions of our ever-so-forgetful society that loose their phone once a year. But in reality, giving up these collection of work security cards, Eurostar tickets and debit / payment cards is an easy choice – just allow your phone to mange it all.

Back in 2008 I worked with a prominent high street loan provider, on their mobile roadmap for the next two years. Believe me, there were some very high-flying ideas floating around that boardroom… here is a high level run-though of some of the concepts.

Leap of faith

Loan providers and credit card companies worldwide and still very worried about where their business will go int he next 10 year. If the mighty credit card disappears and these south Korean or Californian tech leviathans replace them, there is a multi billion pound industry in their pocket right there and then.

The Apple before the egg

Everybody was expecting the iPhone 5 to get realised and come out, guns a blazing with NFC functionality. But no.

It’s becoming clear they have a bigger agenda. Apple don’t want you to use their phones to pay for stuff from an NFC enabled cashier, they want its devices to be the cashier. Big balls eh?

So what it is?

Just got myself a new phone, it’s probably not like yours. I’ve moved away from the one that is probably in your pocket. Now this wasn’t because one platform is better to another, it wasn’t because one is cheaper, or more fashionable.

My reason was because it's different.

This last few weeks has changed my perspective. It isn’t about giving away 30% of your revenue to a company who haven’t put 30% of the effort in. Imagine…

Taking the strain out of account management

Scanning through you statement and cross-checking it with you receipt bundle has always been a ball-ache. Surely a robot can do this for you? When in-store, the intelligent NFC system should management your payments, make recommendations and alway high irregularities.

And to wrap it up

Should OME’s eventually build that trust with its customers base, and should the be demonstrable benefit either via simplifying the account management process or adding real value via outdoor media campaigns then NFC still has a mountain to climb regarding mass take-up. If your bank , or you transport company, or your favourite supermarkets suddenly get on board then all that could could change. So let’s wait and see and fingers this year could be the year of the ‘Digital wallet’