As new technology emerges, one can safely assume that the days of carrying a wallet will soon end. In fact, PayPal believes that by the year 2015, no one will be carrying a wallet anymore. Instead, mobile payment methods will be taking over.
PayPal recently acquired the mobile payments provider, Zong, for $240 million, and has set their sights on changing the world.
According to PayPal, the year 2015 will be the end of the wallet. “As the trend toward digital currency continues to gain momentum, we are focused on delivering solutions that are not just new and different, but better than what is currently the norm today. We believe that by 2015 digital currency will be accepted everywhere in the U.S. – from your local corner store to Walmart. We will no longer need to carry a wallet,” PayPal President Scott Thompson said.
PayPal is even going as far as conducting a study to see how things will be like with no wallets. Five Bay-area residents are being required to use their mobile phone to pay for all their purchases. “How confident are we in achieving this goal? So confident that we’ve asked five Bay area employees to embrace a digital lifestyle and use only digital currency to pay for all of their purchases. The five lucky winners will be announced at an employee event on July 11th,” Thompson added.
Just recently, Google introduced its Google Wallet service, a near field communications (NFC) payment system that will turn an Android device into a mobile payment system.
The guys over at Mashable posted an infographic that looks deeper into the mobile payment trends and tracks what experts predict will happen in the next four years:
