Technology you neven know you needed

When I was younger, I was often depressed by the idea that there was just some technology I was never going to live long enough to see.

Transwarp drives, holodecks, cyborgs: all make the list of tech likely to appear after my expiry date. Even if I did manage to live that long, I would probably be too old to enjoy it, except for maybe the cyborg part, but even then probably only if I needed a hip replacement.

These days, I’m getting depressed for a slightly different reason. I now understand that no matter what I do, there is probably no way I am ever going to escape having to live through the irritating effects of technology that is — I’m told — right around the corner.

I’m talking about NFC, or near field communications. Although to be fair, it’s been “right around the corner” for at least four years now.

And every year, its proponents are more and more adamant that “this is the year of NFC.”

For those of you not familiar with NFC, it’s the technology that’s behind those two people in the Samsung commercial who tap their phones together to share playlists. I tried to think of a real world example of NFC, but at this point, I’m betting if you live in the Middle East, more of you have actually seen the commercial than have seen NFC used in the real world. It’s basically radio communication that allows two devices to share information, such as your pictures, contact lists, or credit card details, but without all the messy “pairing” and time consuming authenticating that has made Bluetooth everyone’s favourite annoying technology. The big goal of NFC is to allow consumers to use their mobile phones just like a credit card and do so without looking like a luddite.

e-wallet

If you haven’t seen NFC being used, that’s probably going to change this year. Dubai Metro is expecting to install it this year, and etisalat made a big deal out of their e-wallet project at this year’s World Mobile Congress in Barcelona. Frankly, 2013 still isn’t shaping up to be “The Year.” Maybe 2014.

What’s the hold up? Well, for starters, you are. Most smartphones these days are NFC compatible, but since there are so few places to use it, you’ve probably never turned in on. Or if you’re like me, you did turn it on, realised it was eating into your battery and turned it right back off.

Since it’s obvious to retailers that we don’t know what we’re doing with NFC, they’re in no rush to re-equip all their stores to be able to accept NFC payments. That means that you still have no place to use your fancy NFC-capable phone. See where I’m going with this? It’s a nasty circle.

So why is there a big push to get us to buy into technology that we never knew we needed? (Hint: The answer to this type of question is always the same.) It’s money. Or, to put it other way, it’s a chance for someone else to insert themselves into the transaction chain and claim a little bit of the pie. Because there will be fees, and transaction charges, and that granddaddy of windfalls — the abandoned account.

Some of you right now are probably getting ready to point out that Google doesn’t charge customers for using its e-wallet. Not quite, Google’s business model is advertising based, so the bottom line is still the denaro. I don’t expect everyone else to be so generous.

But the best question isn’t how someone can make money from NFC, but whether NFC and e-wallets will ever make your life easier. Let me run a few scenarios by you.

1. You’re at dinner and your phone dies, probably because you’ve been surfing YouTube all day. How are you going to pay for dinner? Hope you brought either your real wallet or a charger. Do you really want to live in a world where your wallet has a 12-hour battery life?

2. You lose your phone in the cab. First, the last phone you bought cost Dh2,800, so the first thing you do is try to track down your phone. You give up after two days and go buy a new phone. Hope you have Dh2,800 somewhere other than in your e-wallet.

3. You walk up to the counter and find Mr Blueberry, as long time readers of this column will remember as the world’s most incompetent cashier. He doesn’t know how e-wallets work, but despite this being technology designed to be used by non-tech people, he still can’t figure it out. He asks if you have cash instead.

4. You drop you phone in the toilet. Just saying, it happens.

Bottom line, don’t leave your wallet at home. Odds are, even in the year of NFC, you’re still going to need it.