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Why Mobile Wallets Are Doomed
redletterdave writes: "The other shoe has dropped for Square. The once-hyped mobile payments company is killing off its Wallet payments app and replacing it with a new app called Order, which will allow users to order food and beverages ahead of time at their favorite cafes and restaurants. For entrepreneurs, the concept of a mobile wallet seems so logical that the payments industry looks like it's ripe for disruption. If everybody is always carrying around a powerful computer in their pockets, it's natural to consider loading payment information onto that secure device as an alternative to cash or plastic cards. The problem comes when this logical entrepreneurial spirit merges with an industry segment that is classically illogical. The payments system in the United States is a mess of entrenched interests, fragmented business opportunities, old infrastructure (like point-of-sale systems), back room handshakes and cut throat competition. This behavior is not going to change any time soon, which means mobile wallets like Square are going to continue to struggle — at least until a more legitimate, easy-to-use and cost-effective solution comes along."
why is paying by phone so much better than with plastic?
i do it starbucks for the rewards
only other reason is if a food truck took cards instead of cash. why do it anywhere else?
for the retailers its more money to spend with no return on investment
If I have to carry something around in order to pay for shit, a regular wallet works just fine. With actual cash in it.
I barely trust using my phone to log into a social network, let alone anything that might cost me money. With every app attempting to spy on each other, I would never trust my phone for financial transactions. Not for many years to come.
It's not like swiping your credit card in the 'traditional' manner is much better.
Cryptocoins are a solved problem. It's being able to store them securely that is the problem.
IOW, the cryptocoin problem isn't solved.
So I need to go back to lugging my safe around?
"Oh sorry you'll have to send me more money, the value of this cryptocurrency dropped 20% in the 5 seconds it took to process the transaction."
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Is that I have to plug them in to charge for 3 hours before I can use them to buy a coffee...
The first time I get stuck somewhere because my phone died and I was unable to pay for a bus or taxi is also the last time I rely on mobile payments.
Please. This is a "solution" in search of a problem. And not even a good solution. All the CC companies in the US are (finally) being forced to implement chip-and-pin. Do you really think they're going to switch off of that for something even less secure than a standard CC? Not that they really care about security.
Besides, There are so many entities (not counting the malicious ones) tracking what goes on your smartphone, do you really want to trust your money to an app on one of these? If so, please use my app. It's complicated to set up, so please send me all your financial information and I'll get things going for you. You may notice some charges or emptying your bank accounts, but that just me making sure everything is working properly.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
There are specific examples the implementation fails. For instance Starbucks has a good implementation, but many Starbucks does not accept the card. Why am I going to have something that is useless. It also by default wants to annoy you every time you go by a Starbucks. We see the same thing with CVS. It is nontrivial to pull up the card, and easier just to type in a phone number.
Most of the digital wallet is just gather information on consumers without providing value in return. Like a grocery store loyalty card. Sure, some are going to use it. Some are going to shop at the store because of perceived value. But many are going to the store that just provides simple service. Walmart does not have a loyalty card.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
E-wallets have been popular in Japan for years. They are extremely convenient, especially if you use public transport a lot (and Japan has good public transport). No more messing about with change at the convenience store either. Vending machines take them too. As an added bonus there is no receipt to throw away, that gets stored on your phone/online account automatically as well.
Business users love them because they can easily import the receipts into Excel and file an expenses claim. Everyone else just finds it easier to pay for stuff at the end of the month via their mobile bill, instead of loading up a stored value card or fishing for change every time.
I hate coming back to the UK and having to deal with all this crap just to buy stuff. Some places can just about cope with contactless debit cards now, but if you have more than one in your wallet you have to get it out or a random one will be charged. My phone is nice and separate.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Rapid Price Changes are part of a infantile system. As the system matures, and becomes wider spread, pricing will stabilize. The problem is what to do in the meantime. Right now, people with patience will make a minor fortune, provided that the market exists in the future. In the mean time, it is not for the faint of heart.
If I were a merchant, I would be accepting BitCoins as fast as I could, as the opportunity is there right now, with enough patience.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
I am the senior writer and mobile editor of ReadWrite and have been writing about mobile payments for years now. Thank you. And actually, I didn't add that link to the coffee shop, one of my editors must have put it in. What would you like to discuss, Mr. Mopps? I have discussed mobile payments solutions with just about every company that is in the game and many of the analysts firms that follow payments. The harsh reality of the mobile wallet is not something that I pulled out of thin air. My conclusion is based on evidence of consumer usage (both empirical and data driven), the performance of these apps, talking to merchants and other various field research and the actions of the companies for almost five years. Google Wallet? Isis? Square? LevelUp? All have issues affecting adoption ranging from merchant adoption to conflicting industry interests to consumer behavior, privacy and security. What do merchants want? Low interchange rates. What do consumers want? The ability to use a payment method wherever they go while deriving value from it. What do big tech and payment processors want? A slice of the pie and will cut the other company's hamstring to do it. Payments are hard ... for so many different reasons and every single hyped mobile wallet that has been released to the consumer market has, in one form or another, failed.
Thank you.
Sure it is. If a hacker gets my CC info and makes charges, my loss is limited to hassle and frustration. If a hacker gets my BTC info, I lose my BTC forever. That makes BTC like cash, which sure can be stolen, but to steal my cash you have to walk up to me and get my wallet away from me. A wallet thief can only rob a handful of people per day, whereas a BTC thief can take a hundred million dollars from ten thousand people in one night.
There are lots of tradeoffs for all these different systems. None of them are exactly perfect but none of them are worse than all the others in every way. Each has different strengths.
Do you keep your entire life savings in cash in your dead cow wallet? no? then why would you keep it all in your mobile cryptocurrency wallet? have a offline wallet at home for you savings and carry you spending money in you mobile wallet problem solved.
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.