After reading Anothony Miyazaki's blog about Starbucks' Card Mobile App that allows people to pay for their orders using their mobile phones I thought, "This is the future!". People with mobile devices never leave home without them, but there are times when people do forget their wallets or their money at home. This new technology has the potential of eliminating wallets all-together! The average American has 3 to 4 credit cards in their wallet which forces us to constantly must keep checking our accounts to see what the balances are on each card. I used to do that myself and it became time consuming and stressful. If all credit card companies would make mobile phone apps instead of a physical card then we can eliminate the need for credit cards and reduce identity theft as well. The apps can be similar to Starbucks' App. It can show what your available balance is, the total amount of purchases, and the information on your next monthly payment. People can pay their credit card balances right from the app and stop wondering how much money is left and when their next payment is due. Since there would be no more need for wallets then if a person's wallet is stolen, they would not need to go through the hassle of calling each company and canceling the card. Of course there is the fact that your smart-phone can be lost or stolen which would require more security to have access to those apps.
Another revolution this may cause is that there would eventually only be three smart phones available: the iPhone, Blackberry, and Android. These three companies have their own app stores which thousands of people use daily. If this new app credit card took over, most people would purchase these smart phones and turn in their old phones. Just like Windows and Mac who are the only two computer operating systems, there would only be three mobile phone operating systems.
This is the future...not just another Starbucks fad.
This is the future...not just another Starbucks fad.
http://e-marketingforsensiblefolk.blogspot.com
http://www.starbucks.com/coffeehouse/mobile-apps/starbucks-card-mobile
