Card less, Cashless payment

Card less, Cashless payment

30 . July . 2018

Technology is repainting the payments landscape. Given the complexity of the payments ecosystem in various countries, change happens slowly. Sometimes it takes decades, but change does happen. Newer digital technologies may accelerate this evolution. This post looks at the future of money and how it will evolve to become cash-less, card-less and paper-less.

The Future of Money, which looks at the overall industry and factors leading to greater digitization of payments. Mobile phones have been a catalyst for much of the change, but it is important to remember that it is still very much a cash-based world.

While countries differ in terms of moving toward cards, mobile phones or other new digital technologies for payments, one thing is clear: ALL countries are trying to move away from using relatively expensive and inefficient paper money and metal coins for making payments.

Some countries have begun to move away from cash to primarily plastic cards for payments, while others are leap-frogging cards to use their mobile phones. Still other countries are exploring new all-digital bank accounts accessed by the consumer’s mobile phone number and PIN.

The replacement of magnetic stripe cards with chip cards reduces the risk of criminal sabotage and prevents skimming techniques that criminals use to read and store data of cards inserted into ATMs.

The one common denominator is the evolution away from cash, which has many obvious and hidden costs. With greater recognition of increasing income inequality around the world, new mobile money/digital payment solutions can also help to alleviate this problem.

The future of money will leverage digital and mobile technologies to enable the creation of new lower-cost, highly efficient payment solutions. This future will be cashless, card less and paperless. It may take a LONG time to become reality, and it will surely be unevenly distributed.

There’s an evolution certainly toward more and more card-free forms of payment. Even if you look at the growth rate of e-commerce, it’s all card-based but not with actual cards, and that’s growing much faster than the rate of retail where people maybe actually swiping or dipping a card. Ultimately we are going to be in a position where we won’t need a physical element to carry around with you to provide the information you need to pay. That information is stored on a mobile phone or a wearable device, or some combination of all of those things. It’s going to take time just because people are very used to cards. But that’s going to change pretty dramatically.

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WebVR on Chrome now works with Google Cardboard

WebVR on Chrome now works with Google Cardboard

15 . April . 2017

Google rolled out WebVR to Chrome for Daydream-ready phones earlier this year, but it is now available for Google Cardboard too. WebVR is browser agnostic, so VR content creators can simply share what they’ve created without worrying about which browser their audience is using.

Of course, developers have to add support for WebVR to their browser first, so Google is leading by example with Chrome. The freshly minted WebVR Experiments site takes you on a tour of a selection of WebVR experiences developers have thus far created.

These can be viewed either with a Daydream View headset or with Cardboard. If you don’t have a Daydream View or Cardboard, you can still check out the experiences on your browser, but you obviously wont get the full VR effect.

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“Bezel-less” Maze Alpha smartphone specs get leaked

“Bezel-less” Maze Alpha smartphone specs get leaked

31 . March . 2017

It’s always exciting when a new smartphone OEM comes along and even moreso when it looks like they’re going to deliver something hot. Following the release of its debut smartphone, the Maze Blade, a few days ago, Chinese manufacturer Maze Mobile is set to follow up with the eye-catching Maze Alpha in the coming weeks. And its specs have just leaked online.

According to leaker Evan Blass (@evleaks), the Maze Alpha will carry a 6-inch Full-HD display with Gorilla Glass 4, an octa-core processor, a dual-rear camera from Sony (one of which will be 13 MP) and a 4,000 mAh battery. It’s also said to come in 4 GB RAM / 64 GB storage and 6 GB RAM / 128 GB storage configurations, and run Android Nougat out of the box.

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Huawei Mate 9 sales reach 5 million in first four months

Huawei Mate 9 sales reach 5 million in first four months

13 . April . 2017

We already know that the Huawei P9 and P9 Plus have been selling very well. Last month, the company announced that it sold over 12 million units of the two devices in a little less than a year since they went on sale.

However, last year’s flagships aren’t the only ones that are in high demand. Huawei has recently shared the sales numbers of the Mate 9, with which the company is probably quite happy about. The Chinese manufacturer sold five million units of its phablet in the first four months of its availability, which is 36 percent more when compared with the sales of its predecessor — Mate 8 — in the same time frame.

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