Mobile Contactless Payment Innovations Summit - Key Quotes/Takeaways

By Randy Smith,

Mobile Wallet Media

October 16, 2012

"The one who enrolls, is the one that controls."

Richard Crone of Crone Consulting speaking about the control of 'Big Data' via Mobile Wallets.

"We must get away from the idea of wanting to control the customer. Today the way you control the customer is to provide value. We just need to confirm ID at POS. Does your new product integrate with all systems and will it scale?"

Amir Wain, CEO of I2C, Inc.

Many profound insights were shared at the 5th MCPI Summit in Chicago on October 2-3.

This event delivered expert opinion from a diverse perspective. In writing this article I could have spun up a short and simple summary with just the key takeaways. However, this event had so many relevant conversations I thought it best to just deliver the conversations as they happened, while screening out the non-essentials. Sort of like using your DVR to watch a football game or favorite TV show.

The host and moderator for many panels was Karen Webster, the CEO of Market Platform Dynamics and President of PYMNTS.com. I've always been a fan of Karen's articles and case studies!

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Bridging The POS GAP - Disruption is Overdue!

By Randy Smith,

Mobile Wallet Media

October 10, 2012

NFC is the Tortoise and QR/2D bar codes are the Hare, but is there a Cheetah that might chase down the Hare and further stall the Tortoise?

And in the end, who will be the Lion and King of the mobile payments?

In thinking of proper analogies regarding NFC in mobile payments and wallets, an 'Arranged Marriage' is what comes to mind. It best suites the incumbent parties (networks, banks and equipment providers) and leaves the groom (NFC-Wallets) and bride (merchants) hoping it works out well.

Why does NFC suite the incumbents so well? NFC requires a reader in the terminal and is designed work in conjunction with conventional banking and prccessing methods. As Jerry Seinfeld might say "Not that there's anything wrong with this." But as the marriage has been delayed, the bride is becoming restless and questioning if the arranged marriage will be worth it. Retailers, the bride, know what they want (MCX), but remain open to other suitors that are now wooing them away from the marriage with NFC: Pay with Square, LevelUp, PayPal, Apple (? - said no to NFC) and more! With NFC, it takes the phone and terminal to engage and so the retailers are looking at other options to fuel their desire to gain mobile payment engagement.

In relating NFC to mobile payments, the core purpose of mobile payments is enhanced convenience, speed, security and decreased costs for merchants and consumers alike. The NFC and Mobile Payments marriage may end up producing these results, but it sure seems like the marriage is traveling on a rocky road and is still yet a fragmented arrangement. A single standard has yet to emerge and merchants are wary of investing in technology that is not ubiquitous or may be 'Dinosaur Tech' in 6-18 months.

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PayPal + Discover = Dynamic Duo that could also be THE Disruptive Duo!

By Randy Smith,

Mobile Wallet Media

October 5, 2012

I think we've only seen the tip of the iceberg here. Discover was once the 'New kid on the block,' as was PayPal. Now both are firmly established as the number 4 and 5 players in payments. These two companies have incredibly complimentary strengths. Discover has much room to grow and PayPal has always been the innovator and wants to expand it's presence from the online to the physical world. Their current partnership is one that is mutually beneficial. PayPal rides the rails of Discover's acceptance in the real-world stores and Discover taps into PayPal's Digital Wallet, alternative payment methods and their as 110-million+ regular users and 9-million+ merchants.

IF they can figure out how to BEST LEVERAGE each other's strengths, they could both DOUBLE their market share in as fast as 2 YEARS! Yes, I'm saying as they do on infomercials, "But wait there's more!"

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Key Takeaways and Quotes from Mobile Engagement In Retail Conference

By Randy Smith,
Mobile Wallet Media
September 26, 2012

The Mobile Engagement In Retail Conference, in Denver on September 13-14, was a very well-rounded event. I gained new insights from experts in mobile retail, advertising, loyalty and payments.

Could Digital Watermarking replace QR or 2D barcodes? After seeing how Digimarc's technology works, my only question is why wouldn't it replace QR codes? It seems all that is needed is a branding and education campaign to make their tech dominant.


Digimarc's, Ed Knudsen explained how Digital Watermarks work much like a QR code scanner. Their app is called "Digimarc Discover App" and is avaibable for iphone and Android. To sum it up, the technology works by scanning digital or print images. Digimarc's code is not visiible to the human eye, but when scanned, works like a QR code. The user may be directed directly to a web page about the product or image content, page to buy the product featured or a coupon with a 1D or 2D bar code. It seems like the scanning of a Digimarc code takes just about as long as scanning a QR code. So for use with mobile phone or tablet app scanning, why are they better than QR codes?

Digimarc's Digital Watermarks are currently not better than QR codes, only because they are not understood or even perceived by consumers. When consumers see a QR or 2D bar code many if not most tech savvy cosumers recognize what they are and have used a scanner on their phone. This is not the case with DigiMarc's technology. However, QR codes are everywhere and are just plain ugly and do not work well to compliement beautifully crafted images.

So it appears that all Digimarc needs to do is ramp up their publicity and media campaign to educate consumers, retailers and advertisers about their very cool and seamless tech. They have already struck big deals with major companies. Their use on Pinterest, the 3rd largest social network in the world with 104 million users, 80% of which are woman and half moms, is quite a compelling use of their tech. Digimarc's technology is also used for ID authentication and to prevent currency counterfitting. Think of how different the world might look without ugly QR codes and with the branding and advertising possibilities with Digital Watermarking. I don't think they will replace QR codes displayed for scan at POS.

Continue to read entire story at MobileWalletMedia.com.