New Paypal reports claims wallets unnecessary by 2016

We’ve covered NFC (Near Field Communication) and mobile payments quite extensively on Technology Blogged and have also written about your main options currently, including situations where Google Wallet (and other NFC systems) aren’t practical.

Looking ahead a whole 5 years however, Paypal has created a new report called ‘Money: The Digital Tipping Point’ stating that UK consumers will no longer have to carry plastic cards or cash to pay for items on the high street by 2016, with smartphones taking their place. The report is a commissioned survey conducted by Forrester Consulting on PayPal’s behalf, and consisted of interviews with 10 high up executives from some of the UK’s most profound retailers and other businesses.

“We’ll see a huge change over the next few years in the way we shop and pay for things” Said Carl Scheible, Managing Director of PayPal UK  ”By 2016, you’ll be able to leave your wallet at home and use your mobile as the 21st century digital wallet. Our vision of money is to enable you to pay for something from wherever you are, whatever device you’re on – a PC, mobile phone, tablet, games console and a whole lot more.

“2016 will mark the real start of money’s digital switchover in the UK. We’re not saying cash will disappear entirely, but we’ll increasingly use our phones and other devices rather than our wallets to pay in-store as well as online”

Overall, one thing the report does not seem to take in to account is a very simple thing though; no sane person would ever rely on a single device to hold all of their personal data, especially one which also carries all of your contacts, meetings and personal / confidential information. I mean, didn’t they (Paypal, Forrester) ever hear the old saying ‘never throw all of your eggs in to one basket’?