Here at the
just-wrapped spring version of the CTIA Wireless mobile communications show in New Orleans,
the buzz on the show floor isn't about new phones or new technologies. The buzz
was about the show floor, or, more precisely, what and who was NOT at CTIA.
Only two major phone
vendors, LG and HTC, had booths. No Samsung, no Motorola, no Nokia, no
BlackBerry (and, obviously, no Apple). None of the four major national carriers
had anything more than "innovations" spaces (Verizon and AT&T) –
Sprint held meetings off campus, and I saw neither hide nor hair of T-Mobile.
While officials touted
the 40,000-plus attendees, and city and venue officials noted CTIA was the
largest convention New Orleans had hosted post-Katrina, the show floor felt
small and barren, especially compared to past shows in Atlanta and Orlando.
Why? I spoke to
several officials from these usually anchor exhibitors and the reason came down
to three letters: CES.
Just as smartphones
are absorbing the functions of standalone devices such as cameras and GPS
devices, CES is absorbing standalone shows. This year, it was PMA that CES
subsumed. And with so many eyes on it, consumer cellular companies opt to
unveil their latest and greatest in Las Vegas or at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in
February.
By spring CTIA,
there's little to spend money on exhibiting to report.
Maybe this is just
me, but I've never understood why CES, which encompasses the entire consumer
electronics product universe, requires one show, but the wireless industry
needs two.
2012: The Year of NFC?
While there was a
dearth of new handsets on display, perhaps the biggest impact at CTIA came from
Visa and MasterCard, both of whom had fairly large exhibits.
It seems that,
finally, NFC and mobile ecommerce will take off this year. Even though both
credit card companies are hawking mobile wallet solutions – Visa has PayWave and
its two-week-old V.me
wallet
service (which inaugurated on Buy.com), and MasterCard has created the PayPass service, both are members of
the ISIS
mobile wallet consortium, and both have created iOS and Android
wallet apps – each is taking a different approach to perfecting shopping via
smartphone.
Visa sees consumers
using their mobile phones instead of a credit card in increasing numbers as the
number of NFC-enabled phones leap from nine (Samsung, Nokia and BlackBerry) to
90 in the next year, according to Visa president John
Partridge,
with whom I sat down with at CTIA.
Whether these 90
NFC-enabled smartphone models include iPhone 5 no one knows – or at least no
one is officially confirming (even though there have been hints). The inference,
however, was that an NFC-enabled iPhone 5 would certainly accelerate consumer
NFC acceptance and use.
Visa is working on
several NFC issues such as security – both on the technical side and allaying
consumer fears – as well as value-added NFC functions, such as couponing and
redemption at point-of-sale, sales and receipt notifications, linking loyalty
programs, the ability to check balances before purchase, etc.
MasterCard, however, considering
the dearth of and reliance upon NFC-enabled handsets, is taking a wait-and-see
attitude towards handset-as-credit/debit card. Instead, MasterCard wants
consumers to feel more comfortable using their smartphone as a mobile ecommerce
platform.
According to Ed
Olebe, MasterCard's mobile wallet services head, many people shop (in the
browsing sense) on their smartphones – arguably the most ubiquitous shopping
platform ever created – but fewer than 1.5 percent of consumers actually
complete their transaction on their handsets, which means maybe they NEVER
complete the transaction.
Why? Filling in the
shipping and/or billing name/address/credit card numbers on that small keyboard
and small screen is way too tedious, and sending this sensitive personal and
financial data over the air from potentially unknown shopping sites makes many
smartphone shoppers uncomfortable.
So MasterCard is
creating a raft of trusted wallet services all with an automated PayPass
service at their heart – just click on the PayPass payment option, and all your
previously-stored-with-MasterCard credentials are filled in for you.
By promoting payment
ON a smartphone rather than BY a smartphone, MasterCard hopes to generate more
business for itself and its retail clients, which would then make it easier for
the company to step consumers up to use MasterCard PayPass services on an
NFC-enabled smartphone, if and when.
While it will still take
time for mobile ecommerce to truly take off – Partridge believes it will take
three-to-five years before NFC point-of-sale terminals reach a critical mass –
the presence of Visa and MasterCard certainly made CTIA worthwhile, at least
for me.
