This bit of news landed on my feed today morning and left me much distraught. Every time there is the slightest murmur of a security issue around mobile wallets, the tech media and blogs – ever so informed, has to find the nearest tallest tower to shout it out from. It serves as a doubled edged sword in that it both leads to public humiliation at the town square for the brand in question, plus it further spreads FUD and instills a deep sense of mistrust towards that digitization of wallets and ends up being applied quite broadly which is quite unfair. Continue reading
Drop Labs
Drop Labs – Skating to where the puck's going to be.
Filed under Mobile Payments …
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
Google Wallet, Meet me at Camera 3
I really didn’t intend this to be my next post on the DROP Labs blog. I was not planning to write about Google Wallet – again. I have an unhealthy obsession towards it, evidence of which can be found here, here, and here. After the last one, which chronicled my On the road experiences, I pretty much decided not to write about it for a while. There were other things I wanted to write about – Issuer strategy on mobile wallets, Ongoing turf battles between Platform providers/Manufacturers vs Carriers, and then it happened again. Continue reading
On the road with Google Wallet
I rode about 900 miles in the last four days, cutting across Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey to be together with my family for Christmas. I figured this would be a good time to put my new Galaxy Nexus and the Google Wallet app through its paces. Following are my impressions from it, which as a whole was very cool and satisfying. But (and there is always a but..) it also brought to surface some serious handicaps, which though not Google’s fault, could bring its wallet initiative down like a lead balloon. Continue reading
Retailers – Wake up and smell the napalm
Amazon seems unstoppable. The online juggernaut is poised to grab additional market share from local retailers this holiday season by equipping its smartphone app with a $15 incentive (or call it what it is – a bribe) for customers. It is available to anyone who while perusing the aisles of a local retailer in search of their object of desire, instead of adding it their cart, scans the barcode, finds it on Amazon and buys it outright from the online retailer. Something equivalent to being enticed to use your wife’s cellphone to call your love interest. This surely has infuriated the ranks of retailers (even those with an online presence but have a bone to pick with Amazon) and has led to cries of unfair practices. The fact that Amazon does not have to worry about paying sales tax (outside of California at least) adds more fuel to the fire. Continue reading
Trouble brewing for Google Wallet
I believe in Google’s capability to actually pull off mobile payments. I believe they do get it. With all its initial failings, its misplaced loyalty towards NFC and the existing payment rails, I believe they truly have a shot at fixing payments and closing the loop in local commerce. Let’s look at what is going right for them: Android is fast becoming the dominant ecosystem on mobile, with over 200 Million devices so far, and 550k activations happening each day. They have made Android a force of nature, that is now slowly eating away at Apple’s market share. They have a mobile wallet initiative out at front, at least more than a year before the closest competitor they have – in Isis. They have had some notable successes with retailers (for e.g. Gap) and has partnered with NJ transit for payments. Formidable partnerships with Citi, FirstData and MC should be all that is enough to prod more issuers in to joining Google Wallet. Despite all this momentum, Google Wallet does not seem to be having a good day so far. 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
Google Wallet – A missed opportunity?
Google Wallet launched not so long ago, to a mobile payments ecosystem that is already fragmented and fraught with uncertainty. Instead of proving to be a disruptive innovator in the payments space, Google chose to partner with its entrenched incumbents. Instead of eliminating the point of sale experience altogether, it chose to be overly reliant on NFC at the point of sale, with very little progress to show for it. Continue reading here…
Square Announcement disingenuous, or at the very least ambiguous
Square made a number of announcements on Oct 10th, the most prominent being that it is now processing $2B a year (up from $4 million per day) and that it has ramped up to 800,000 merchant accounts from 500,000 previously. It also mentioned that at 800k, it now represents 10% of the combined merchant base of MC/Visa. Truly laudable? Hardly. You see, square, being a payment disruptor did not start out by stealing merchants from down underneath MC/Visa. Continue reading