This post is in response to the recent Bankinter story of NFC payments at the point-of-sale without requiring SE – and the lack of any real detail around how it plans to achieve that goal. I am not privy to Bankinter’s plan to dis-intermediate the SE, but as I know a wee bit about how NFC works, I thought a post would help in clearing up any ambiguity as to how Card emulation and Host Card emulation differs, upsides, challenges – the whole lot. Continue reading
Drop Labs
Drop Labs – Skating to where the puck's going to be.
Filed under Apple …
MCX – MerChants reduX
MCX – MerChants reduX: Recently, I spent an hour chatting with friends of mine who launched a small business about what worked and what didn’t. When the topic veered off to card acceptance costs, the reaction was visceral – one of absolute loathe and the struggle to understand the myriad ‘Do’s and Don’ts’ of what cards to accept, and how to accept them. In the end, they had swore off Amex cards because the acceptance cost was above their product margins. I told them about Square and how it could allow them to continue taking Amex and pay a lower rate. But that had me thinking about MCX and what it could mean for small businesses. The post that follows is a collection of thoughts around MCX, why it deserves respect, and yet how it is indeed mortal and bleeds like all others. Continue reading
Isis, It’s not you…It’s your business model.
It’s good to be back. Quick update, in case you missed it in three different places: I am now focusing on Mobile Payments and Banking as part of Experian’s Global Consulting Practice, which offers me myriad opportunities to see up close why banking and payments in particular remain spectacularly oblivious of the creeping threats of disruption. But today, I couldn’t have found a more better topic to wet my parched throat than the story of the comeback kid – Google Wallet. Continue reading
Wake up, Google!
The last few weeks/months, we have all seen a glut of news and opinion pieces mourning the decline of Google, as if it were already dead and buried. I offer a slightly different viewpoint below, and a more focused one, around its mobile commerce strategy. There, I believe Google is now at an inflection point, where the choices it make shall determine if it could successfully transition from online to mobile, or whether it will resemble Microsoft in its glory days, failing to understand or monetize on the opportunities that lay before it in the early days of internet. Continue reading
Allow me to make you irrelevant
Seeing how Apple’s negotiating stance is with Cable and Content providers for Apple TV & how Google did the same w/ Issuing banks, which pretty much amounts to : “Allow us to take over your relationship with your customers” and “Let us repackage your offering” and finally “Sit still while we turn you in to a dumb pipe”, I gotta ask – Is this a case of Disruptors becoming dumber or Disruptees becoming smarter? I mean, everyone on the planet has read Clayton Christensen’s book by now. Who just sits there and waits to be made irrelevant anymore?
Did Google Wallet land it’s Second US Carrier – AT&T?
After the brouhaha over Verizon Galaxy Nexus and Google Wallet a few weeks back, it seemed that none of the Isis Carriers will allow Google Wallet on their networks. Sprint, absent from the Isis partnership has, and is a Google Wallet partner. But this past week, news emerged that Google Wallet can be installed and works on the Galaxy Nexus in the AT&T network. Is this evidence of AT&T warming up to Google Wallet and signal the coming of Google Wallet on other AT&T NFC equipped phones?
Sorry to break your bubble, but the short answer is NO. Continue reading
iPhone 5, NFC & iWallet – Pick Any Two
Being on Week 3 of a self imposed Google Wallet embargo, I had instead been writing about the ongoing turf wars between Platform providers and Carriers, which is starting to sound like an episode of ‘Mob Wives’. Though the bulk of it was to be focused on Android, it became impossible to ignore rumors around iPhone 5 and NFC. Now that iPhone 5 is a mere couple of quarters away, the rumor-mill has started to churn yet again on the possible inclusion of NFC along with iWallet – Apple’s own mobile wallet initiative. Most of these indicate that an Apple mobile wallet initiative equipped with NFC is a sure bet. I on the other hand (and ever the doubting Thomas) – am not so sure. For the rest of this post I shall lay out reasons why I believe NFC and iWallet are far from a sure bet to be included in iPhone 5. Along with it comes the caveat that my Crystal Palantir that helps me see in to Infinite Loop, Cupertino has malfunctioned, which has left me equally in the dark as to what Apple may choose to do in Q4 2012. Whatever happens, I have attempted to paint the broad outlines of an Apple mobile wallet strategy, regardless of it being proximity or cloud based. Continue reading
Apple’s next move, Courtesy of Siri –
Much has been written about Siri in the last one month. And a lot more, will. For those who want to learn about how Siri does what it does so well, this link should help. It does a number of things quite well today: its natural language processing capabilities, and its ability to interface with more and more third party apps – contacts, messaging, calendar, maps to name a growing few. And a Siri powered iTV experience just might be around the corner. That being said, what interests me is not what Siri the virtual assistant can do for me, or the million or so proud owners of an iPhone4S. What does interest me is what Siri could end up being, for the millions of others around them who may or may not even own an iPhone. Continue reading
Apple’s disruption of the Point-Of-Sale
Apparently, rumors are abound that Apple may be planning to launch an update to its retail store iOS app that will allow consumers to utilize self-checkout for purchases of accessories and other shelf-stocked items at the company’s retail stores. I believe that with this move, Apple is taking the first step to disrupting the POS, starting with its own stores. This may be Apple’s first volley in to the emerging payments space, at the same time drawing a clear distinction between itself and other stakeholders who has invested in mobile commerce. Continue reading