Like the One Ring controlled our beloved Frodo, now-a-days you could say that it would only be a matter of time before smartphones began controlling peoples lives as well! As stated by marketing guru Mark Staton @DigiMark_WWU “our smart phones have become our cameras, our calendars, and our computers, it makes sense that they would become our currency.”
As stated by an article from the Boston Globe, there are several simple and efficient methods that the smartphone is able to be used as a payment method. Google Inc. offers Google Wallet which lets you pay by tapping an Android phone against a terminal. Also LevelUp, a Boston-based company whose smartphone app pays your bill by displaying a bar code (check out their video) makes purchases just as convenient. Companies like this are changing the world of commerce and reinventing the purchasing wheel. They are currently the largest payment platform available today. Below is a simple step process of how payments work using LevelUp.
Thanks to companies such as LevelUp, PayPal and Google Wallet, more than 20% of payments are being conducted with a mobile device using mobile apps. Then Square Inc., invented by the co-founder of twitter Jack Dorsey gained a lot of popularity. A company that lets anybody accept credit card payments through a smartphone through a service that uses your face as a substitute for the card itself. Today, this technology is over a lot of peoples heads and could be several years before they really take off throughout your daily purchases, but we are close!
Some of you may be wondering if I will talk about the bitcoin. I’ll touch base on it but unfortunately as for the bitcoin, it’s a dying breed and soon to be a currency of the past. An article by BloombergBusinessweek states how the Winklevoss Twins are looking to invest the virtual bitcoin on the Nasdaq Stock Market. As you may or may not know, the Winklevoss Twins claim that Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea for a social networking website currently know as Facebook. Which to me sounded like a desperate cry for attention and credit that is most likely not deserved. Don’t expect to be making much money by investing in the virtual bit coin through the Winklevoss Twins. You’re better off helping yourself to purchases using mobile apps!
Eltony1 