According to Ping the feet why Passbook or may not be as successful as it seems

It's no secret that "a usable» Passbook in the CIS yet questionable, even despite the fact that there are already some of the proposals are available for download. Passbook originally conceived and presented as a means of replacing plastic cards and paper tickets. During the presentation, the idea looked fresh and interesting, but now, after some time has passed using this service and have accumulated a lot of feedback about it, you can draw some conclusions about the success of this attempt to make another innovation.

Apple - it's corporate giants, with their success stories and downs, but it was something she did not take away, it's the reputation of an innovator. While at the same time it is well known that not all products have obtained recognition from the public, to take at least its a pioneer of digital photography Apple QuickTake or recently closed Ping. So who will Passbook - nedopilenym log or a new standard for the mobile market?

First of all, it should be understood that the plastic cards have taken a very firm place in our daily lives. This bank cards, discount cards and supermarkets, tickets and much more. In order to displace the plastic with its heated seats in our pockets it needs a lot of effort has already been proved earlier by other players in the mobile payments market.

Let's look at some basic examples of victories and failures taken earlier.

Have you ever heard about Flooz? Not? Well, no wonder. It was an attempt to promote e-currency in the late 90s. In fact, the idea was not so disastrous, and as it turned out e-currency has a right to life, but at the time Flooz proposed solution to the problems that still existed. While e-commerce has not yet developed enough and it was no problem to pay the usual ways. Despite the advertising featuring Whoopi Goldberg, the creators did not manage to attract enough attention to merchants and consumers, which has led to the closure of the project within 2 years of bankruptcy.

One of the more recent examples - Facebook Credit. Not even looking at his entire prevalence of the World Internet users, and in particular people in the US, Facebook did not manage to promote their e-currency. After three years of trying, it was decided to abandon the idea in June.

Another major player Google also attempted to introduce its system Google Wallet, though there is still too early to give up. The company relies on bezkontaktye payments through NFC, which is designed to replace such familiar to us ordinary wallets. The whole idea does not look like a failure, because the smart phone has become almost an integral part of the life of a city dweller. The pace of development is certainly not impressive, but it is already possible to notice traces of Google co-operation with Master Card and its PayPass system, which can not but rejoice.

Perhaps the most striking example would be a system of payments PayPal, eBay introduced online shopping leader. He successfully took the niche that the large banking companies did not notice or simply underestimated. Its indisputable advantage is the ease of use. The service was able to capture the middle ground between accessible to the ordinary user simplicity and security of payment. Earning the confidence of the service has established itself as a monopoly on the largest trading site eBay.

What about the very Passbook? Apply to it all the same rules as the rest. The service must be:

1. most convenient for the user
2. minimally costly for the seller
3. all operations must be fast, but at the same time safe

With regard to the item on the convenience for the end user is highly questionable. To date, in order to take advantage of Passbook need to download the app gives such an opportunity (eg, Lufthansa app) and then bind it to Passbook. This raises a logical question - why should I then Passbook, if it does not work without third-party applications? With the same success all this functionality can be left inside each application, and do not make it to the Passbook. Yes, in the Passbook have the opportunity to send an e-ticket over the Internet, but is it really so nebohodimo?

Passbook when compared with its rival Google Wallet, then the second it is possible to link a bank card to the smartphone that supports NFC and carry out all payment transactions through contactless technologies. The same can flash apple service did not manage to find out the response.

Summing up we can say that the Passbook may well repeat the fate of social service Ping and go to the graveyard of failed undertakings Apple. The reasons for this can be set. Among them, an inability to compete with the already familiar to us such "common" cards and tickets, insufficient usability, or simply market unwillingness to accept this concept. Passbook can save only actively promoting it to the masses, which is not particularly notice from Apple from which we can draw conclusions that might soon icon of this service will disappear from the screen iUstroystv.

[via Gigaom]