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Go on...top up my finger

Mobile wallets are mainstream…no they’re not…yes, they are…

I want my NFC…what about a QR code or P2P?

Tablets and smartphones, stored-value, account-to-mobile, don’t forget CARDS!

Cash and cheques - your days are numbered…is there a date on that? Long live cash and cheques!

Buyit, Pingit, Zapp-it, contactless sticker tap it, iTunes, Amazon…but I don’t even like Starbucks! (Don’t make me drink it)

Can you stamp a loyalty card on a phone? Can you offer me a discount, voucher…go on send me an ‘I’m awesome’ text…I’m dying to be your ‘brand ambassador’.

Just because you know my location do you know who I am!? Take all my data, give me better deals…wait you’re taking my data? But that’s private!

Why did M-Pesa only work in Kenya? Hey, do we even need banks? Who stole all my bitcoins?

I’m not scared of you, REGULATIONS! Hey, did you just bite me in the arse?

Enough!

If I hear one more debate or argument about the future or non-future of mobile in banking and payments I’m going to scream. You know what one thing all these non-sequiturs, and questions and statements have in common? There all about stuff. They’re about the app, or the device or the tech.

Do you know who really is mobile? You are.

Nine year old boys don’t care about any of the above when they ask: ‘Mummy, can you top up my finger?’ Huh?

Let me explain…

I’m not a big fan of showing a picture of a baby with an iPad as evidence of ‘Hey, look this inter-web thing all the kids are taking about, it's going to be big!’ You know what else babies do? They fart at random and think their feet taste awesome.

But a few weeks ago someone sat up at an event I attended (pick one) commented that their son’s school runs a ‘fingerprint identification’ system for school payments. So every week she gets met with a request from her nine year old: “Mummy, can you top up my finger?”

Go ahead argue until the cows come home about PSD compliance and the merits of NFC vs QR codes. The only thing that will remain the same when that nine year old is as old as me is that there will be people, who are mobile, and there will be payments that they will want to make.

Go on…top up my finger. :-)

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Comments: (10)

Brett King
Brett King - Moven - New York 03 October, 2013, 15:39Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up 0 likes

Nice reality check Liz.

While I do think that the interwebs are already "big", when it comes to "babys with iPads" this is indicative of environmental influences that will influence this future generation's behavior and instinctive decisions. For example, my 13 year old daughter grew up around computers and has never lived a life without the internet. Her instincts for how she gathers information is framed by that. She's not instinctively going to use a cheque or reach for an Encyclopeadia off the shelf, for example. Part of that is her instincts are different, part of it is there are better options - like your finger.

My 4 year old son thinks every screen should be a touch screen, because that is what he's grown up with. He's certainly going to grow up thinking about communication with his peers very differently from you and I. His instinct will not be to grab a phone off the wall to make a phone call, or write a letter to his grandmother, or maybe even use a mouse.

Payment modality has been changing constantly for thousands of years, it shouldn't surprise us that it continues to change. What surprises me is that despite the enormous influences on our behavior that is disrupting the world around us, that many want to believe so badly that we aren't changing, or defending the status quo as if that is more pure or better because it is a recent historical traditional use.

This isn't about stuff - it's about human nature when it comes to interactions. When day-to-day behavior is fundamentally changing, that is something that rightly will be discussed and debated over whether it is good, bad or mobile.

But I appreciate that it is sometimes frustrating.

A Finextra member
A Finextra member 09 October, 2013, 10:59Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up 0 likes

On the end of the finger is a mobile supercomputer.

We do ourselves no favours by calling it a phone.

And nobody wants to make a payment. It's something they have to do (so they begrudge paying for it). The perfect payment is so frictionless as to 'just vanish'.

They want to do something that the supercomputer can make much easier - buy a good, pay an invoice, collect fees and subs. That's worth paying for.

One day we'll have a biometrically-enabled NFC PSD PCI compliant micro computer in the form of a large crystal which can be worn on the finger, which makes payments 'just vanish'. HMQ has one, but hers is based on old carbon-based technology.

A Finextra member
A Finextra member 09 October, 2013, 13:55Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up 0 likes

or even go one better than vanish and make it 'a payment experience that users enjoy'.

Elizabeth Lumley
Elizabeth Lumley - Girl, Disrupted - Crayford 11 October, 2013, 18:22Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up 0 likes

Neil, I know there's no one here my us payment geeks. But I think it is safe to say that no one in the history of the world has ever, or will ever utter the phrase 'wow, now that really was a 'payment experience' I enjoyed.' :-)

Brett King
Brett King - Moven - New York 11 October, 2013, 18:33Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up 0 likes

Liz,

I've heard people describe their first Uber, Moven and Starbucks experience in just that way...sorry to be the contrarian.

But I get your point. It's not about the payment - I've actually been saying that for quite a while:

https://www.finextra.com/blogs/fullblog.aspx?blogid=5389  

BK

Brett King
Brett King - Moven - New York 11 October, 2013, 18:35Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up 0 likes

Don't just take my word for it:

http://mikefaley.com/post/30681043689/why-uber-is-awesome

 

Elizabeth Lumley
Elizabeth Lumley - Girl, Disrupted - Crayford 11 October, 2013, 18:40Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up 0 likes

Payment geeks don't count - we're the nerds of the geek world. Our customers are just too lame for Comic-Com.

Brett King
Brett King - Moven - New York 11 October, 2013, 18:42Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up 0 likes

I heard a mother of 5 in Starbucks proclaiming how easy it was to pay with the Starbucks app - does that count?

A Finextra member
A Finextra member 11 October, 2013, 18:58Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up 0 likes

The first lady thru' the first chip-and-pin checkout in the UK (an IBM project) was a lady well into state pension age. A throng of journos blocked her route, and in great anticipation, asked 'so how did you find it?'. 'I may be old, but I'm not stupid' came the answer.

and as to people enjoying a payments experience, and graphene coated buckyballs, we really need an icon for tongue-in-cheek. Though maybe not for that latter one, I've been thinking about that a bit. Finextra can you help?

Brett King
Brett King - Moven - New York 11 October, 2013, 20:07Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up 0 likes

Liz,

Is this what you really are trying to say?

https://www.finextra.com/blogs/fullblog.aspx?blogid=8333

 

BK

Elizabeth Lumley

Elizabeth Lumley

Global FinTech Commentator

Girl, Disrupted

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