MSFT: All Ur M-Payments R Belong To Us

Ironically, the day’s most technically challenged presentation came from Microsoft’s Moin Moinuddin.  After an unscheduled intermission to sort out some glitches, Mr. Moinuddin launched into a discussion of the many mobile applications, both commerce related and otherwise, that are enabled in a world of RFID-equipped phones.  The presenation was interesting, if a bit light, and would have been more appropriate early in the day as a means of setting the tone for later presentations. 

He concluded his illustrations by saying, “… and Windows Mobile will be the operating system that makes this all possible.”  I’ll excuse this skewed perspective as Microsoft has a bit of experience with a monolithic operating system but, as any mobile application developer will tell you, the real world is far more complicated.  In fact, the multitude of mobile OS’s and even unique implementations of the same OS from device to device, is the single greatest challenge to rapid development and deployment.

The high point was a video illustrating the grocery shopping experience when a store, the shoppers’ mobile and the devices carried by store personnel can all interact machine-to-machine.  In this utopian vision, shelf prices change on the fly, out-of-stock items are replenished faster, discount offers are delivered to shoppers the moment they enter the appropriate aisle, payment is processed without having to pass through a register and stockboys emulate Brett Favre as they toss the item they know you’re looking for into your cart, without comment from either of you.

Here again, there were some computer issues starting the video, at which point Moin issued the second funniest line of the day, “Oh… I’m pressing the wrong button.  It’s me, it’s not Vista.”

MPW – Knights of the Roundtable

MPW’s first roundtable discussion of the day focused on what it will take to build a sustainable mobile payments business ecosystems.  Participants included Tatiana Mulry – MasterCard’s VP of Mobile/Wireless Center of Excellence, Doug Brit – Sr. VP for Helio, Tom Zalewski – President of OTA service provider Venyon, John Duncan – Sr. VP of First Data Corp. and Kevin Dulsky, Senior Director and General Manager for PayPal Mobile.

John Dulsky led off the conversation by making the point that there are few unmet needs in the payment space and that consumer demand will be driven by truly innovative offerings.  This is counterintuitive to those working in Innovation with a capital “I”, who typically begin by seeking to identify unmet needs.  His comment was met by general nodding of heads by the others.

It was then John Duncan’s (of First Data) turn.  He did not say the most valuable thing he could have (which would have been, “Buy First Data stock today.  Next week we will announce the sale of our company in an LBO to KKR, at a 26% premium to market”) but did point out the inherent value of wireless operators’ customer bases to issuing banks.  As he pointed out, the credit card industry mailed 6 billion card solicitations last year which generated only 18 million new accounts, a mere .3 per cent success rate.  He went on to share his view that wireless carriers will need to share in the transaction revenue stream for mobile payments to succeed.  Again, I share this view but it would be more meaningful if it were coming from an organization, such as an issuing bank, that will write the checks.

Tatiana Mulry from MasterCard carried this line of discussion forward by stating that the issuing banks are confused by mobile payments and unsure of next steps.  She suggested that a coalition of carriers might successfully take a proposal to the banking community through an independent third party.  I suspect that she was thinking of a card association such as hers but the first thought I had was, “what about FDC”?

I am a frequent reader of Scott Shaffer’s The Pondering Primate, a blog that does a nice job covering specific wireless technologies.  One of Scott’s core concepts is the notion of the Physical World Connection, in which various capabilities of mobile devices are leveraged to allow interaction with immediate surroundings.   In his time with the mic, John Dulsky of PayPal Mobile referred to such episodes as “local interactions.” 

Incidentally, I met Scott Shaffer very briefly during CTIA.  He does not look the least bit simian.