Mobile payments: great for coffee, but not much else • Hacker News Board

Re: Mobile payments: great for coffee, but not much else

#21

Post by wallflower » Thu, Jul 28, 2011, 11:01 PM UTC

Cherian_Abraham wrote: post #4

Mobile payments using contactless technologies such as NFC goes beyond the transaction at the Point-Of-Sale, in terms of providing a context to my payment. Even though it maybe that it would be easier to take your credit card and swipe faster than taking out your phone, launching the app and then initiating a mobile payment, the advantages are as follows: - The app can tell me if for a particular retail category, I h…

> This space is still being shaken out in terms of players and alliances.

The big players are never going to open up their NFC tag format so 1) the only app that will let you use your phone to act as your bank or credit account will be their official, locked down app and 2) the only app that will verify that the tag read constitutes a valid credit card is the official app (sorry, Square - unless they manage to partner with the big banks).

I do not think there will be open standards for letting indie developers into the purchase chain for NFC.

Re: Mobile payments: great for coffee, but not much else

#22

Post by hugh3 » Thu, Jul 28, 2011, 11:39 PM UTC

I'm still not sure what the value proposition is supposed to be for me, as a consumer. In one pocket I have my credit and debit cards. In the other pocket I have my mobile phone. Unlike my phone, my credit and debit cards never run out of batteries. Why do I want to replace one with the other?

Re: Mobile payments: great for coffee, but not much else

#23

Post by yxhuvud » Thu, Jul 28, 2011, 11:53 PM UTC

dustingetz wrote: post #14

Cherian_Abraham wrote: post #4

Mobile payments using contactless technologies such as NFC goes beyond the transaction at the Point-Of-Sale, in terms of providing a context to my payment. Even though it maybe that it would be easier to take your credit card and swipe faster than taking out your phone, launching the app and then initiating a mobile payment, the advantages are as follows: - The app can tell me if for a particular retail category, I h…

i dont think any of that matters. nobody cares. the app can ask me to confirm the transaction after the retailer initiates. that's a game changer. there is of course lots of lobbying to be done, but you need to already have a business interest to get the laws fixed.

How is that a game changer? That functionality already exist in modern card terminals.