What’s in Your Wallet?

What is a wallet?

Several years ago while living in the dorms at college, a few friends and I had this idea for a product. It would be slightly smaller than a piece of paper, and maybe a half inch thick. The thing would be a touch screen and you could do all sorts of things with it… Sadly, we thought of the iPad about 5 years AFTER Apple starting making it. We knew there was no way to make it happen any time soon so we just sat back and watched.

About a year later I got an iPod touch. Every time I would see one of my friends I would talk about the core functionality that it was still missing that we had talked about. Then the iPad came out… Basically the product we were thinking about and about a thousand times better. Yet, it was still missing several of the key functionalities. Yesterday I got an email from Starbucks that delighted me to no end.

I knew there were a handful of stores on the west coast that allowed you to pay with your iPhone / iPod touch, but honestly this is what I’m talking about. I salute Starbucks, Target, and Apple for being awesome at what they do. I’m tired of carrying around Starbucks membership cards, gift cards, etc. The idea that I can whip out what’s already in my pocket for yet another task in my daily life means I can save some time, energy, and thought.

So What?

I’ll tell you so what. If you don’t see this as a huge, blinking arrows pointing towards the future, let me help you out. The iPhone / iPad / iPod will replace our wallets, period. Wallets will most certainly be a thing of the past. If you make wallets for a living… sorry. Your time is limited! If you code for a living, there is lots of money awaiting to be made. Here is a list of what’s in my wallet:

- Student ID
- Credit / Debit Cards
- Business Cards
- Starbucks Gold Card
- Drivers License
- A $1 dollar bill
- AAA card

Imagine for a second when Visa and Mastercard produce an app. When checking out at a Target or Wal-mart you will no longer have to swipe a card, you’ll just click your Visa app, enter your password, and maybe press your thumb print to the screen and then put the bar code over a scanner like you do with products at the self checkout.

Ever have a situation at a store where you want to use $50 from your bank account and use $15 on your credit card? The Visa App can do that. Ever have a friend go to the store and how him $5.03? I can send you $5.03 from my Visa App. Now all of your accounts can become one, giant bank account.

Business cards you say? Imagine being able to store all the business card you ever got into a clean, easy to use categorical system. Also imagine that you can never run out, no matter how many you have given away at the conference you are at.

Do I really need to continue with this? Before it’s all said in done, Capital One won’t be able to ask “What’s in Your Wallet” because none of us will have a wallet. We will just have our iPhones or iPads or iSomethings. I imagine there are great companies out there right now figuring this stuff out. Will you be in on it? Either way you’ll enjoy the benefits of what’s to come. Here is a salute to Starbucks, Target, and Apple for pushing us into the future.

Zach