Worst of the Week: An m-commerce sellout

Hello!
And welcome to our Thursday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWirelessNews.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
So there seems to be a bunch of noise around mobile commerce right now. For example, AT&T Mobility on Tuesday announced a plan to offer mobile access to banking services across all of its handsets through a partnership with Firethorn. Then, the next day, Wednesday, Qualcomm announced it will acquire Firethorn for $210 million. Then, today, I wrote a column about it. See? Lots of noise.
Anyway, the stuff with Firethorn coincides with related but separate mobile-commerce announcements from the GSM Association and NXP and Sony Corp. The GSM Association is touting progress on contactless mobile payments, and NXP and Sony announced the formation of Moversa, a joint venture aimed at driving contactless smart-card applications in mobile phones using Near Field Communications (NFC) technology.
Now, if all this stuff sounds like gobbledygook, that’s because it is. The whole mobile-commerce/mobile-banking/mobile-wallet/contactless-payment area makes me want to scream, mainly because it is spectacularly simple stuff that has been made way too complicated by those in the field.
Now, normally I use this column to make fun of things and generally waste time, but today-just this once-I’m going to try to write something cogent and informative. Bear with me:
WHAT IS MOBILE COMMERCE?
Mobile commerce, or m-commerce, can be divided into a few general categories.
1. Virtual Shopping. In this form of m-commerce, users get onto their phones and buy stuff via the screen on their phones. They can either buy content like ringtones or actual goods and services like books and CDs.
2. Real-world shopping. In this form of m-commerce, people use their cellphone like a credit card by actually swiping the phone itself across a credit card reader, like at a gas station. When people talk about “contactless payment” and “NFC” they’re talking about this. Basically, this type of m-commerce pastes your credit card onto the back of your cellphone.
3. Accessing your bank account. In this form of m-commerce, typically referred to as mobile banking, users fire up an application or their Internet browser and access information from their bank, like account balance and stuff.
4. Gambling. Self-explanatory, yes?
Now, why did I go through that exercise? I did it because none of these mobile commerce activities is even remotely complicated to understand or, in some cases, to implement. Indeed, I would argue that many of these sorts of services are unnecessary.
For example, why would I want to access my bank account via a browser when I can just call my bank’s automated telephone service? And why would I combine my credit card and my cellphone when I already carry a wallet (which is a necessity if you want to carry cash and a driver’s license, not to mention insurance cards for emergencies).
So what’s the point? The point is that “mobile commerce” has been a hot topic in the wireless industry for years, and I for one am sick of it. Mobile commerce is neither complicated nor interesting, yet I’m forced to read and write about it.
Enough! Let’s get on to the good stuff like what the industry is going to do when everyone in the U.S. already has a cellphone. And that time is rapidly nearing: CTIA just announced there are 250 million cellphone subscribers in the country right now, and according to the U.S. Census Bureau there’s a total of 303 million people living here.
See? Interesting.
(PS: Qualcomm paid $210 million for Firethorn, which means the smart people over at Qualcomm think it’s worth investing millions in the mobile-commerce market. And if you think I’m smarter than Qualcomm, you’re crazy.)
OK! Enough of that. Thanks for checking out this Worst of the Week column. And now, some extras:
–Following the failure of its U.S. business, Disney Mobile is now turning its attention to Japan. I can just hear the Disney Mobile execs explaining things: “Hey, ‘Hello Kitty’ works there, why can’t Disney Mobile?” Brilliant.
–There is a company named Zone4Play. The company describes itself as a “leading developer of gaming technologies and content.” I just can’t get over the name. I wish it were spelled ZoneForeplay. That would be so awesome.
–AT&T Mobility announced it will sell the new Pandora music application. The service allows users to listen to streaming radio stations on their phones. AT&T is going to sell the service for $10 per month. Interestingly, Sprint Nextel was the first carrier to offer the service, and currently charges $3 per month for it. Am I the only one who is confused by this pricing discrepancy?
–And last, but definitely not least, the best headline in the history of the world: “Lopez spills beans on baby.” I know it’s not wireless, but come on!
I welcome your comments. Please send me an e-mail at mdano@crain.com.