By Boston Herald
Paper money and plastic credit cards will soon become nearly obsolete, replaced by handy new applications on mobile smartphones, industry experts predict. And Boston companies are leading the way.
“It’s a safe bet that very quickly mobile phones will be involved in most transactions,” said Emily Green, chairwoman of the Yankee Group, a Hub tech-analysis firm. “What’s happening now is people are taking the experiences from their desktop and laptop and assuming that should be portable in practical ways.”
Several new smartphone applications allow consumers to scan products and compare prices in stores. What’s more, consumers will soon be able to do away with their magnetic-strip credit cards and use their smartphones to pay for transactions.
Many phones are expected to include so-called near-field communication chips within the next year. The chips can be configured to act like your credit card and are used by tapping a phone against an NFC payment terminal.
Research in Motion Ltd., the maker of BlackBerry, and Nokia have both suggested their next generation of phones will have NFC chips this year. Apple Inc. is rumored to be working on a new iPhone (due out this summer) with an NFC chip, and Google Inc.’s Nexus X already has one.
The result could be an end to plastic credit cards — and potentially big trouble for the industry. Green said she could envision consumers — no longer relying on their credit cards — being open to a new form of credit, perhaps from trusted brands that deal in online shopping, like Amazon.com.
“They realize they’re under threat,” Green said of credit-card companies. “And they’re trying to figure out how to maintain their role in the process.”
Paper money and plastic credit cards will soon become nearly obsolete, replaced by handy new applications on mobile smartphones, industry experts predict. And Boston companies are leading the way.
“It’s a safe bet that very quickly mobile phones will be involved in most transactions,” said Emily Green, chairwoman of the Yankee Group, a Hub tech-analysis firm. “What’s happening now is people are taking the experiences from their desktop and laptop and assuming that should be portable in practical ways.”
Several new smartphone applications allow consumers to scan products and compare prices in stores. What’s more, consumers will soon be able to do away with their magnetic-strip credit cards and use their smartphones to pay for transactions.
Many phones are expected to include so-called near-field communication chips within the next year. The chips can be configured to act like your credit card and are used by tapping a phone against an NFC payment terminal.
Research in Motion Ltd., the maker of BlackBerry, and Nokia have both suggested their next generation of phones will have NFC chips this year. Apple Inc. is rumored to be working on a new iPhone (due out this summer) with an NFC chip, and Google Inc.’s Nexus X already has one.
The result could be an end to plastic credit cards — and potentially big trouble for the industry. Green said she could envision consumers — no longer relying on their credit cards — being open to a new form of credit, perhaps from trusted brands that deal in online shopping, like Amazon.com.
“They realize they’re under threat,” Green said of credit-card companies. “And they’re trying to figure out how to maintain their role in the process.”
No comments:
Post a Comment