http://www.thecatalystcode.com/theconversation/blog/2008/12/18/wave-to-pay-is-far-away/ The Catalyst Code Tue, 07 Feb 2012 06:55:50 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.11 http://www.thecatalystcode.com/theconversation/blog/2008/12/18/wave-to-pay-is-far-away/#comment-5250 Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:01:56 +0000 http://www.thecatalystcode.com/theconversation/blog/2008/12/18/wave-to-pay-is-far-away/#comment-5250 Absolutely right. By the time the Japanese introduced contactless payments in the phone Japanese were using their phones to do everything from playing games, downloading music, checking train schedules, and much more. It was natural to add payments. I agree and I think many in the industry do too that if Americans had contactless payment-enabled mobile phones they would love to use them at the point of sale. But we have a chicken and egg problem in the US that is just a lot harder to solve than it was in sui generis Japan. The phone companies, card issuers, and networks have to come to some sort of agreement on what to do, or the phone companies could try to introduce their own payment system, or a card network perhaps could buy a phone company. The phone companies are still a ways a way from learning how to play in the same sandbox as anyone. So not much is really happening. The card networks had the bright idea to issue a contactless card in the hopes that this would get the merchants to install contactless terminals so that by the time the mobile phone had sorted itself out there would be contactless pos’s. Lots of idea seem bright but turn out dumb. This is one of them. Absolutely right. By the time the Japanese introduced contactless payments in the phone Japanese were using their phones to do everything from playing games, downloading music, checking train schedules, and much more. It was natural to add payments. I agree and I think many in the industry do too that if Americans had contactless payment-enabled mobile phones they would love to use them at the point of sale. But we have a chicken and egg problem in the US that is just a lot harder to solve than it was in sui generis Japan. The phone companies, card issuers, and networks have to come to some sort of agreement on what to do, or the phone companies could try to introduce their own payment system, or a card network perhaps could buy a phone company. The phone companies are still a ways a way from learning how to play in the same sandbox as anyone. So not much is really happening. The card networks had the bright idea to issue a contactless card in the hopes that this would get the merchants to install contactless terminals so that by the time the mobile phone had sorted itself out there would be contactless pos’s. Lots of idea seem bright but turn out dumb. This is one of them.

]]> http://www.thecatalystcode.com/theconversation/blog/2008/12/18/wave-to-pay-is-far-away/#comment-5015 Wed, 24 Dec 2008 11:33:16 +0000 http://www.thecatalystcode.com/theconversation/blog/2008/12/18/wave-to-pay-is-far-away/#comment-5015 I think a key element of the Japanese case study is that fact that the contactless phones are so much more functional than a contactless card. The ease of use and convenience at POS is the same, but away from the POS the phone obviously has more utility. If anything from this applies to the USA -- and it's not obvious that it does, but it may -- then it implies that the US issuers need to accelerate on the mobile side. I think a key element of the Japanese case study is that fact that the contactless phones are so much more functional than a contactless card. The ease of use and convenience at POS is the same, but away from the POS the phone obviously has more utility. If anything from this applies to the USA — and it’s not obvious that it does, but it may — then it implies that the US issuers need to accelerate on the mobile side.

]]> http://www.thecatalystcode.com/theconversation/blog/2008/12/18/wave-to-pay-is-far-away/#comment-4950 Mon, 22 Dec 2008 13:39:55 +0000 http://www.thecatalystcode.com/theconversation/blog/2008/12/18/wave-to-pay-is-far-away/#comment-4950 Easy! Japan had a dominant carrier that introduced contactless mobile phones and subsidized the deployment of contactless terminals. Take that and a country where people do virtually everything with their mobile phones (relatively few have computers) and weren’t already wedded to plastic cards (the use of credit is relatively low) and contactless was a synch. People commonly make the mistake of pointing to Japan as the future in things mobile—the problem is that it is idiosyncratic in so many ways. Easy! Japan had a dominant carrier that introduced contactless mobile phones and subsidized the deployment of contactless terminals. Take that and a country where people do virtually everything with their mobile phones (relatively few have computers) and weren’t already wedded to plastic cards (the use of credit is relatively low) and contactless was a synch. People commonly make the mistake of pointing to Japan as the future in things mobile—the problem is that it is idiosyncratic in so many ways.

]]> http://www.thecatalystcode.com/theconversation/blog/2008/12/18/wave-to-pay-is-far-away/#comment-4856 Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:53:42 +0000 http://www.thecatalystcode.com/theconversation/blog/2008/12/18/wave-to-pay-is-far-away/#comment-4856 A decade away and no business case? Then please explain how contactless payment has taken off so much in Japan. A decade away and no business case? Then please explain how contactless payment has taken off so much in Japan.

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