MOBILECASH

So I believe we are on the verge of a cashless society, at least in NYC. I may be on the bleeding edge of it, but if I can go cashless, so can others ~ as says Fred Wilson

I dunno--I think there will always be a place for solid money. just try buying a coke from a street vendor when the power goes out or the wireless signal to the credit card transaction site is lost. No merchant will be willing to forgo a potential sale just because he can't read your credit card. On the other hand, electronic transactions ARE much simpler. We recently set up inter-connected Debit Cards for our kids--which makes paying allowance MUCH MUCH easier. Instead of having to be reminded to stop at the ATM to get cash, and then struggle to break $20's into smaller denominations and change for the various allowance schedules, I just log into the bank, register a few transfer amounts, and I'm done. Painless.

A dozen years have passed since the first person famously bought a Coke from a specially adapted vending machine in Scandinavia using a mobile phone. But in the intervening time, the anticipated mass market adoption of such "mobile wallet" services hasn't happened. Alcatel-Lucent hopes to change that, announcing Mar. 23 that it will run a new global hosting service for mobile operators wishing to launch person-to-person payment, remote ticketing, and mobile commerce services.

COMMENT ~ To make micropayments work, we'll need something more like a micropayment provider, with APIs and collections already figured out. These providers would have to spend a lot of business development time recruiting major paywall content providers (like NYT, WSJ, and HBR) to get a critical mass of adoption for both content providers and end customers. To truly make the system work, they must not be exclusive. Exclusivity would fracture the Internet and increase barriers to adoption for all parties. I think that the credit card companies are good candidates for providing this sort of system, as are Paypal and Google. Imagine it being as simple as "enable micropayments on my account" and a simple PIN to click through to a premium article.

Right now, the startup is focusing on transactions between Mexico and the U.S. - its web site comes in both English and Spanish. It operates 95 "hot spots" in California right now, and is launching new ones in Texas, Arizona, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey this year. Eventually, it will turn its attention to India, China and the Philippines, where people receive hundreds of millions every year from family members or friends in the U.S.

Hampshire, UK - 4th November 2009: A new report from Juniper Research, forecasts that consumer usage of mobile coupons will generate close to $6 billion globally in retail redemption value by 2014.

One trend I've noticed lately is that the few UK retailers that have launched mobile commerce services have opted to do this via mobile apps rather than a mobile website. Both Next and Net-A-Porter have the app, but not the mobile site.

Some supermarkets intend to offer real-time coupons while people shop. For example, a promotion for milk may be sent to a shopper's mobile phone the moment her cart rolls into the dairy aisle. Drugstores will offer loyalty programs on cellphones, not on plastic cards. And specialty chains will allow shoppers to breeze through the aisles compiling a wedding registry, just by pointing at merchandise.