Digital wallet: new smartphone technology could make carrying credit cards unneccessary. Illustration: Nomi Schmidt Source: National Features
BY the time you shop for Christmas gifts, you will be able to use your smartphone as a digital wallet.
After years of promising a revolution in mobile payments, Near Field Communications is nearly here.
Optus, Telstra and Vodafone are all involved in NFC trials in Australia, and all are likely to launch a full mobile wallet this year.
Vodafone general manager of strategy and business development Thomas Roets says NFC-capable smartphones will eventually replace the cards we carry in our wallets.
Similarly, Telstra chief technology officer Dr Hugh Bradlow says NFC will be one of the technologies to take off this year.
"It's been promised for a long time, but this year many devices on the market will incorporate Near Field Communication, which allows radio communication to be established by touching the devices together or bringing them into close proximity," Dr Bradlow says.
"NFC has been a slow burn but it will likely become entrenched this year and we plan to be a big part of that."
Visa country manager Vipin Kalra says Australia is on the cusp of a new wave of mobile and contactless payment systems as consumers fall out of love with cash.
Mr Kalra says half of Australians carry less than $50 in their pocket, while a quarter carry less than $20. "We are seeing a double-digit growth, month on month, on the use of contactless payments in Australia," he says.
The path to widespread NFC use has become clearer recently with key announcements coming out of Mobile World Congress and rumours Apple will include NFC in its next iPhone.
Samsung and Visa used the Barcelona event to launch an alliance that is tipped to accelerate mobile payments.
The deal - the first between a major NFC handset maker and a payment network - means all future Samsung smartphones will come NFC-ready and with the Visa PayWare app installed.
A Juniper report predicts there will be almost 300 million NFC-capable smartphones circulating next year, while ABI Research says that figure will rise sharply, with 1.95 billion NFC-enabled mobile devices in 2017.
Attitudes to mobile payments are also changing. In KPMG's 2008 Global Consumer & Convergence Survey of 31 countries, about half of respondents said they were very uncomfortable with mobile phone transactions.
By 2011, that trend had reversed and 66 per cent said they were willing to use their phone as a wallet.
One of the challenges consumers face embracing the new wave of digital payments is that several solutions are in the works, with different "digital wallets" offered by phone manufacturers, telcos and banks.
Along with promoting NFC, Visa has launched V.me in the United States and is set to release it here this year.
V.me will save consumers typing in their banking and delivery details when they shop online.
The system, which involves hitting one button to complete an order, is set to be popular with the growing number of online shoppers using smartphones and tablets.
Mastercard has beaten Visa to the Australian market with its similar product, MasterPass, that launches this month.
One of the key areas both MasterCard and Visa are promoting with these services are loyalty schemes.
Businesses will be able to take advantage of the buying history recorded with digital transactions, with customers offered real-time alerts if they are in a certain geographic area.
Mr Kalra says consumer confusion with mobile payments is certain to disperse with time.
"At every convergence point of technology or any intersection of moving from one platform to another platform, there may be some confusion for a while," he says.
"It's just that evolution of technology and people get used to the idea. It's the convenience factor that really drives people to change their behaviour. The trick is to keep things very simple."
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