What’s a Mobile Wallet ?

Recently, I happen to attend Mobile Commerce on March 13, 2014 in Movenpick. Following are some of reports which are covered on Pakistani Social Media Scene.

http://propakistani.pk/2014/03/13/abacusconsulting-sap-sponsor-mobile-commerce-conference-2014/
http://propakistani.pk/2013/03/14/abacusconsulting-sponsors-mobile-commerce-conference-in-karachi/
http://www.dramasfun.com/latest-news/31005-mobile-commerce-conference-2014-in-karachi.html
(Mr. Ashraf Mahmood’s Speech about Mobile Commerce)
http://www.sbp.org.pk/about/speech/Governors/Mr.Ashraf.Mahmood.Wathra/2014/Mobile-Comm-BAlfalah-14-Mar-14.pdf

The panelists were Department head of Mobile Financial Services, namely, Mobilink’s Mobi Cash and Warid’s Time Pey to name a few. There was a small discussion of what is a Mobile Wallet. One of them was saying that make an Application (App) for a Bank’s Credit / Debit Card; that ‘s your Mobile Wallet. REALLY.

In IT Industry, one is always amazed about how a Person could start beating around the bush, without ever distilling the core concept of it.

Wouldn’t be a Mobile Wallet be something as simple as a Wallet that we (MEN) keep in our pants or women keep in their purses / cluches ? Wouldn’t a Mobile Wallet be as simple as a Wallet and it’s purpose ?

Let’s distill what’s a wallet, shall we. A wallet has CASH, our Credit Cards, Our Debit Cards, and some loyalty cards that we choose to. At the time of Transaction, we decide to choose, whether we do it via Cash, Credit / Debit Card and use Loyalty points along with it.

Would a Mobile wallet be any different ? I do think not.

A Mobile Wallet has to be an App, not tied to a Specific BANK. It has to be an app, which can hold CASH, AKA Credits points like Mobi Cash / Time pey / Etcetera. Then it has to have the ability to store Credit Cards / Debit Cards (digitally encrypted) in them. Plus it would be having some loyalty point system like Olaround (http://www.olaround.me/), or recently OntheGo.pk (http://onthego.pk/)  (if they start Loyalty Programs).

So at the time of Transaction, all the person would be doing is choosing which Credit / Debit Card / Credit points to use and if possible, can the loyalty points be used with it or redeem something along with that transaction. That Transaction could be done via NFC, or by scanning QR Codes (like what Olaround does). That’s all there is to it. Nothing complex.

THAT, would be a MOBILE WALLET.
Even Google Wallet has similar views (http://www.google.com.pk/wallet/). And we have a Google Wallet App too.

So What I am saying is that Mobile Wallet is a very simple concept, Yet its implementation is complex and has to be done by some third party processors not associated with one single bank.

I would be waiting for further comments.

Sure way to lure more customers to your Service

A sure shot way to lure your customers to your place is giving them your location in the easiest possible way, possibly on their Mobile Phones. Heres how.

These days, organizations are asking Food Bloggers / Critics to blog about their product (be that service / restaurant / a Corporate Company). One thing which lacks (at times) is the location. When we visit a Food Blog, or a restaurant being reviewed, the reviewer talk about the aroma, the presentation, they even post High resolution pictures, which is so tempting, but what they don’t provide is the Location. Location of where that restaurant is at. Same is the case with Corporate companies. All they provide is the Textual information of their post mail address.

Take a reader’s point of view. If he is reading a Blog post about a restaurant, he might be making his mind to go to that place once he gets the free time. He would love to transfer some link to his smart phone. What choice do the site gives to that user ? Currently none.

Now Imagine if one could include a link of website of Restaurant being reviewed, better if the contact details / phone number is provided, great if the direct link to Google Maps is provided, awesome if the QR Code with all the details is provided, so that the read could just scan that QR Code, and all the details are transferred to their mobile phone.

QR Code (Quick Response Technology) ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code ) is not new and we haven’t seen the potential in it, until Olaround (https://twitter.com/OlaroundMe ) ( http://www.olaround.me/ ) started this technology in Pakistan recently about scanning QR Codes and getting discounts.

Let me give you a small glimpse of what a QR Code could do.

Enter QR Code generator. http://goqr.me/. One can generate a QR Code for literally anything. Be that a big chunk of Text one could save it to their mobile phone, be that a Google Maps location, an Email Address, a number to call (so that the phone dialer is directly opened with that number), or a complete V Card (Contact details).

Now the user stories.

• Imagine a Job Seeker wants to know where that company is. He goes to that company’s Website. Scans the QR Code having the Google Map location, and walla. Now he could go to that Company for Job interview.
• A person coming to a restaurant, a he found a job vacancy in a magazine. That Job Vacancy is displayed QR Code. He scans it, and he has now all the requirements, JD, and an Email address to mail to in his mobile.
• A reader reading a Restaurant review on a website. The Reviewer has given a QR Code on his blog which points to the Location of that restaurant being reviewed. The reader scans the QR Code, and how his mobile has the location opened in Google maps, so that he can go there whenever he wishes to.

Building the same example above, I present the QR Code of a random Google Map location which is mapped to Hardees (One of my favorite restaurant) in Karachi, North Nazimabad.

You can use your Mobile / QR Scanner right now, to see this QR code in Action. PS: you need QR code app (links Listed below) installed on your SMART Phone

All the reader has to do is scan the QR Code into your cell phone and boom, a Google Map will be displayed with Hardees set as Target destination, and Source destination will be the current location of the Coordinate where the Cell phone is at. All the user has to do is click get directions, and he will be displayed with turn by turn navigation of how s/he will be going from where s/he is at, to hardees location (in this case).

QR Code scanners are free to download, and if your android phone is updated with the latest version of Google NOW / Google Search, then you do not need to download any further QR Code scanner.

For Android users, following apps can be downloaded.

• https://play.google.com/store/search?q=qr%20code%20&c=apps
• http://www.gregplantada.com/2012/12/15/qr-code-scanning-solved-with-google-new/

For I-Phone users, the following links will show you the app, you could install on your IPhone

• https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/quick-scan-qr-code-reader/id483336864?mt=8
• https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/qr-code-reader-and-scanner/id388175979?mt=8
• https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/qrafter-qr-code-barcode-reader/id416098700?mt=8

and what’s more, Our NADRA has implemented the QR Code technology in their SMART Cards. Don’t believe me, have a look at this blog post ( http://faisalbasra.blogspot.com/2013/01/nadra-pakistan-goes-with-chip-enabled.html ) and picture (the picture is off course scrambled, so that personal details are kept hidden). link to picture. NADRA SNIC Card having QR Code

In other words, we see corporate companies providing their location as QR Codes, providing their Job Vacancies as QR codes in Magazines, Blog Posts, Facebook Pages, Twitter tweets, Restaurants giving their location as QR Codes on their websites, reviewers providing the reviewed service’s location as QR Code location. Wouldn’t that be a great moment.

You can always share your thoughts in comments section. Hey I won’t bite you if you could share a better solution or if you outright reject my opinion. Opinions are formed, because they might be conflicting and genuine.