I recently read an very interesting article titled Google: Android phones could replace credit cards where they discussed functionality existing on Android phones that allow purchases to be made via your cell phone! Some gas stations are already supporting the functionality.
To support the article I read, I've attended a couple presentations at college this semester that have talked about emerging technologies utilizing cell-phone functionality to make money transactions. The areas being targeted at the moment are in countries such as India and Mexico. The need for the technology in those countries is currently larger than in the US, but we'll shortly be next to integrate the new changes.
Smart phones will prove to change almost everything we do in our daily lives. They're already beginning to eliminate the following:
- A need to have separate GPS devices in vehicles
- The need of physically dispersing paper tickets in raffle drawings
- The portable gaming industry
- A need to have a point-and-shoot digital camera
- Video cameras (to an extent)
- The need to carry a personal laptop on travel as email may be read via a phone.
I predict that in the future a type of evolution within smart phones will even go as far as wipe out the need to haul an old, heavy, and large portable laptop with a physical keyboard. You may ask, "well what about screen resolution and having a large viewing window? Computers are consistently improving. Chips are getting smaller and smaller. It's no surprise that cell phones are already coming out with projectors embedded within them. Here's a CNET article talking about turning cell phones into projectors. I also predict that school attendance will be gathered via smart phones and class-administered exams and quizzes will all be performed through the medium of digital communication with smart phones.
Think of the possibilities! Imagine nationwide that the need of physical materials such as pencils. paper, text books, and calculators will be drastically reduced if not eliminated in its entirety.
So in conclusion, sorry about deviating a little from my original subject, Smart phones are shifting the way we're doing business around the world. The technology to use ones phone as a credit card is becoming a reality and if that's the case, there will be no need to carry a wallet with cash and/or credit cards. It becomes burdensome and more of a risk of losing. Wallets are becoming obsolete, along with the dozens of other mono-functional physical things we use in our daily lives.
What are your thoughts? Are you excited for the drastic changes or do you see red flags and skepticism all over the place? Leave it in the comments below.
5 comments:
No making fun of my pencil pouch then!
Men don't understand why women carry around such big purses. Well, women wonder why men put so much junk in their pockets!
But I really don't like all the new gadgetry they are adding onto cell phones. I do perfectly fine with my dinky free phone.
So then would you agree that it's beneficial to have the technology with smart phones so men don't need to haul around an additional item or two in their pockets? I was just thinking, and I bet we'll even use our phones to lock and operate our vehicles one day, eliminating the need to carry keys. A chap stick applicator is another story...
I can definitely see the convenience and advantages of having smart phones perform so many functions (despite the fact that I don't have one) but I wonder sometimes about the wisdom of putting all your proverbial eggs into this one digital basket. It seems that the level of convenience achieved by having a single device to perform multiple functions is directly related to the level of catastrophe when said device happens go on the blink.
Shuan, I think purses will continue to change size no matter what you actually have to put in them.
Ariel, I'm willing to be we'll see more place springing up that will help you to fix your problems as more people begin to have them.
@Ariel:
I completely understand where you're coming from. The article I linked to briefly touched the subject of needing increased security and meeting that need by potentially embedding identity chips within people to verify user authenticity. Whatever ends up happening, the potential of loss will be substantially more significant. Instead of losing a wallet full of cash, you can potentially lose your accessibility to the things you use all around you (along with your money).
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