Electronic, Mobile, Internet payments etc. What’s next?

These are questions that we posed and answered through my network on LinkedIn. I think it’s interesting to read the responses and wanted to share them with our readers. Please feel free to post comments as well.

Q: “In this ever changing industry where technology and ‘user interface simplicity’ are so important. What is next? Will we all have chips implanted in our hands? Will the improvement in Mobile Internet create a merger of all ways of payment into one device? Who knows… do you?”

A: Perhaps some day we will have chips in our hand. But I think payment system will try to use contactles payments (Mastercard PayPass). The world is big and its difficult to implement new technology everywhere. When UK and Sates use contactless payments many countries use magnetic stripe…
For me future is in one device for all payments. put it with keys for example…

A: I think the next big step is biometric payments - using your finger print. no chip, no card, just your finger. For more info have a look at: www.paybytouch.com

A: think the cell phone and PDA will be the future of information and payment. First starting with basic bank transactions and then graduating to multi-application processes in which you will be able to store all your credit cards, loyalty cards, medical records and any other data on your cell phone (a mobile wallet).

I think that the activity in the mobile payment sector is increasing. Some “pro’s” say it is still five years away others say early 2008. The link below shows some of the activity in the last 6 months. Eventually companies will leap toward mobile payment for fear of being left out of this market. I think you will be impressed with the link and the recent action.
http://www.mobilepointview.com/2007/07/mobile-payments.html

A: mCommerce is the next logical step. In my experience working in this space the goal is to make an online transaction fast, easy and simple for consumers.

To address fast we need to make the “merchant” accessible from virtually anywhere. The universal device for easy access to humans is a mobile phone or device. This allows consumers to conduct a transaction from anywhere. Check out www.mobilecommercetimes.com to learn more about mobile commerce (mCommerce).

Where payments are concerned you’ll start to notice the concept of a virtual wallet. PayPal is the best example of this day, Google is working on a solution as well.

I could talk all day about this stuff but hopefully this gives you some answers. If it did tand you think it’s the best please let me know.

A:The payments industry is at such an exciting and important junction. Contactless payments have started with the One Pulse credit card in London. However, I do not see this as being the way the industry will go in 5 years. Across Asia this step has been missed out, especially Japan, and contactless technologies prevail in mobile phones.

The market keeps on coming up with innovative contactless payment methods, such as Visa’s contactless keyring.

However, if mobile phones do become the dominant method for contactless, the question is raised about whether mobile phone companies can begin to cut financial institutions out of large parts of the process.

At the moment mobile phone companies are pairing with banks, (see Citibank pairing with Nokia). However, I envisage them learning from the banks for the next few years and then going it alone.

Imagine a situation where you can load money onto your phone, maybe your full salary, and then make payments via the contactless technology on your phone or via the internet on your phone. Why would you need a credit or debit card? Even a bank account?

However, at what point would these mobile companies become subject to the same restrictions as banks face? And how will the banks respond?

Biometrics will also be very interesting. Barclays and Natwest have been sending out pin producing machines to make buying online safer. However, this seems an unnecessary step. Fingerprinting and finger vein authentication technology has been about for decades, and I see this as a key area to watch out for.