The next big thing: Contactless

I was pondering the other day what the next big (mass market) thing in Handset innovation could be. We’ve already had (and still have) camera module development, and also touchscreens, and probably very soon “haptic-like” feedback through those screens.

Screen resolution on devices will continue to increase slowly, and you could argue the same for music functionality (including speakers) – but what I am thinking about is the next mass market big thing…

On that front, I’d like to suggest that it could be “contactless” – note I missed “payments” off the end of the commonly-used phrase, because I think it would be a mistake to pigeon-hole it to just paying for things (though that’s clearly a killer apps for this technology).

I’d actually go a step further on the contactless front and suggest that it shouldn’t be an open standard implementation – why, you might ask? Well, a number of standards-based technologies in recent years just haven’t done the job in terms of functionality – my experience is that when you design a closed environment, and control things from end-to-end, you can increase both usability and security – which clearly in this case would be important.

But back to the general concept – using your device to serve as an ID card, cash holder, and other related functions, is where I think it’s going to be, going forward. That, combined with the fact that many organisations (e.g. British Airways) are making Mobile more central to their ticketing/booking plans, means that the Mobile is positioned to be the hub of info/payments going forward.

Hell, we could even consider a situation where a car manufacturer does a deal with a Mobile device vendor, to develop a “paired” Mobile and Car – such that you would get the device with the car. The device would act as the Key, part of a car kit (for taking/making calls), and also do Sat Nav/routing info. On top of all this, it wouldn’t necessarily need to be plugged in (unless it needed power), it could sit in a holder and work in a contactless manner.

That was quite a specific example, but there are numerous closed user groups where you could issue a contactless device for service usage, plus the normal mobile bit – in fact, that’s exactly what Nokia, O2 (NYSE: TEF), Barclays, and the London Underground did in a recent test of contactless payments on the Tube (subway).

Perhaps contactless will never become mass-market though – precisely because it’s something that everyone would need to agree on (i.e. a standard) – but it could become the weapon of choice in point solutions that involve large amounts of closed users in a group - corporate fleets are a great example in that respect.

What do you think the future holds? Will contactless be deployed heavily, partly, or not really at all? The comments box at the end of this post is feeling lonely and would like to have your words

Ben