So, companies are really getting to know us know. What we search for. Who we write. Where we are. And now, it appears, how we feel. Put this altogether and it creates an interesting formula for targeted advertising.
Microsoft has patented the idea of serving up mood-related ads to users. By combining information about historic online activities together the user’s current attitude, presumably based on data gathered from sensors such as Microsoft’s Kinect or a smartphone’s microphone, in theory advertisers can address very immediate needs.
Whether this sort of behavior fusion collection is a positive or simply creepy is a matter of opinion. But the fact is it can be done.
For game makers or broadcasters, the potential to target advertisements down to specific individual moods could feel rather satisfying.
Back in the year 2000, I saw a great presentation about the potential of the mobile wallet. The presenter was working with the world's largest handset maker at the time, and he gave a convincing mobile finance pitch: he pulled out his wallet and began pulling out one plastic card after another after another after another. The use case was clear: this mess would be cleaned up with an electronic wallet embedded in our handsets. The presenter assured the audience that within a few years, this would be the case.
So, here we are, almost a dozen years later, and such concepts of convenience haven't gotten very far. At least until today. Google has just rolled out its "Google Wallet" service together with U.S. operator Sprint via the Nexus S smartphone. The Nexus S is a vanilla Android phone, but Google did have the foresight to NFC enable the device, thus making it a good technology demo machine for mobile finance.
Eventually, a MasterCard, Visa, American Express and/or Discover card could be embedded in your device as well as many loyalty cards to be used at payWave- or PayPass-enabled point-of-sale terminals.
Will Google Wallet succeed? One thing is for sure: Google's timing is very good: the cost of NFC has come down considerably, and we can expect most mid- to high-end smartphones coming out over the next few years to be NFC enabled. And Android's critical mass could be the key driver: around 50% of new smartphones shipped run Android. But success is a double-edged sword, and the other major U.S. operators aren't so keen to give up this business development opportunity. Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile have their own mobile payment partnership project, ISIS. And Apple will likely give Google and the operators a run for their money with the iPhone 5.
So who will spark the mobile finance market for real? My money is on Google. They have the global reach, critical mass, adjacent services, and name recognition to pull this thing off. It's in the cards.
Consumers, cameras, codes, and connections. This gives the hands-on shopping experience a whole new meaning.
I've been seeing the use of mobile-readable barcodes such as QR codes more and more in both Europe and the U.S. lately. Practically every street-level billboard has one, such as those at train stations and bus stops. But I've yet to see something quite like this: a virtual store linking the consumer to an entire shopping experience through the use of QR codes.
This concept by UK-based Tesco developed for their South Korean subsidiary redefines the retail experience. It brings the store to the wait instead of waiting to go to the store. I'm not sure I would use this myself, but that probably shows that I'm just not busy enough. But is this what's in store for all of us sooner or later?
This is not a supermarket, but an incredible simulation.
