Amazon’s Interest in Mobile Payment Highlights Disruptive Phase
With everyone and their mother eying mobile payments, it becomes clear what disruption feels like: competition, buzz, smack talk, opportunity, intensity and many, many unknowns. And today’s NFC-centered scuttlebutt suggesting Amazon.com as the latest possible mobile payments contender makes that disruptive fire even more wild.
The company’s Amazon Payments unit is exploring whether to start a service based on so-called near-field-communication technology, said the people, who asked not to be named because the project isn’t public. NFC lets devices transmit data such as payment information, loyalty points and coupons by tapping them against specially equipped cash registers.
Amazon will decide its NFC mobile payment course in the next three to five months, reported an undisclosed source to Bloomberg.
Certainly, Amazon has a lot going for it in the mobile payment race, including its recent Amazon Appstore for Android announcement. Still, Google got named as another possible NFC contender just this week and that’s not to mention the likes of Isis, Apple and an entourage of other mobile payment initiatives already shaping up. Saying the space is crowded is like saying Mount Everest is tall.
Everyone is vying for the dough on payment technology that has yet to appeal to the masses. There are no clear winners or losers yet, nor will there be for some time. That’s the essence of disruption.
