The Mobile Wallet

It’s 1 am. Do you know where your wallet is? For those prone to forgetfulness, that can raise a small alarm. I’ve left home without my wallet often enough, my glasses in public washrooms, credit card at the grocer’s and my mobile in restaurants. And just to entice thieves, my keys hanging in my car. It’s a disease. Life’s complicated enough without having to worry about a jangle of keys, the remote for your gate and a half-dozen passwords. The only thing I’ve never forgotten is my PDA, because to the best of my memory, I’ve never had one.
So if you are anything like me, the idea of a mobile wallet is (1) a big welcome because all you got to remember is one thingy or (2) a big worry because if you lose it, you lose everything.
Call it a must-have or call it a distraction, but here it is.

So what is a mobile wallet?

If there are 3-in-1 shampoos and 4-in-1 printers, why not an all-in-1 mobile phone? The mobile is already MP3 player, video, PDA, watch, TV, GPS, game console and fashion accessory, so why not everything else in your pocket?

Japan is where things like this usually begins. In 2004, NTT DoCoMo launched a service for people to make bank withdrawals, take the metro and buy air tickets with the mobile phone, among other stuff. At its rollout, you could walk into any of 9000 stores and make purchases with a few taps of your phone.

What made this magic was a wireless chip built into 2G and 3G phones. And this was just the start. Japan’s 100 million mobile users is a good place to tinker with the future.

Everything can be digitised and like it or not, everything will be, once technology and security are addressed. Governments, credit cards, banks, phone makers and network providers have long been working on this.

It isn’t so alien. Like all things tech, what seems frighteningly futuristic quickly becomes standard gear. We think nothing of plastic money, whizzing past tolls, or walking through immigration with our bio-metric passports.
Many of us zap a keycard to get into the office. Soon keyless cars may be as standard a feature as floormats, and your mother can wave her phone over scanners at the supermarket. If you are caught speeding, you could flash your mobile instead of your driving licence.
Should you be daft enough to wrap you car around a tree, your mobile will inform the doctors of your medical records and allergies, if any. And because your insurance policy is in your mobile, they can also decide if you are worth saving.

The mobile wallet is here

Just this month, the country’s major banks and telco announced a mobile wallet initiative. You can now transfer money with your mobile or buy a movie ticket. Working late? Just dial up a pepperoni thin-crust and pay with your phone. Services are limited now and the technology is sms-based. The next phase is chip-based and that’s when it gets a little more fun. For you and marketers and let’s not forget, the people who create content.
I might still be keeping my diary because I like the sound of pencil on paper. So the only other thing I have to remember is my glasses, unless I get my eyes lasered.