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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Future of identity moving to mobile
Smartphones to hold much of our worlds
WOULD you sooner hand over the key to your house or the password to your cellphone? Your answer now may not be the same in just five years.
A report on the future of mobile suggests people's identities are becoming so tied to their phones, surrendering them soon will be akin to ceding financial, personal and professional control. And when you think about how much of your world is already on your cell, that prediction -- based on data from top communications executives -- seems altogether plausible.
"For the first time, all your identity is going to be in one item. That's an extremely powerful notion," says Alex Pallete, planning director for international business development at the International marketing communications firm JWT.
"There will be a shift in behaviour and trust will be earned through experiences.
"But we'll do it because this will make our lives easier. We won't have to have five different things in our pockets because everything will be on the mobile: how we switch on our car, how we open our house, how we control our home systems."
At the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, on which JWT's report is based, top executives from such brands as Visa and Google forecast the end of the physical wallet, as Near-Field Communication turns smartphones into catch-all payment systems.
Rogers recently launched a Smart Home Monitoring service that lets Canadians manage their thermostat, security system, lights and even small appliances using only a smartphone, while Telus Personal Health Record allows people to remotely monitor everything from prescriptions to medical records.
There are even hotels now that are using NFC-enabled phones as virtual keys, with guests simply touching their devices to the lock to gain access to their rooms.
"In the next five years, technology will be like electricity -- something that's just there, and that we take for granted," says Pallete, hastening to add security and privacy will consequently become top priorities. "Many spouses won't share their mobile passwords with each other. They'd share anything else -- even their toothbrush -- but 'Don't ask me for my password.' "
Marc Choma, spokesman for the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, describes it as a paradigm shift in which people are no longer thinking of their mobile devices strictly in terms of making calls.
"It's not just your phone anymore. It's an extension of your computer. It is a computer," says Choma. "People want to be able to access their entire lives with their phone."
The CWTA reports the number of cellphone subscribers in Canada now tops 26 million, with more than half owning smartphones. Industry insiders are keeping an especially close eye on mobile banking transactions, which will be a yardstick for consumers' growing faith in the technology.
An ING survey conducted in October, for instance, found about half of Canadians already foresee using their smartphones to check their accounts within a year or two.
"I can't think of a major bank in Canada now that doesn't have mobile banking," says Choma. "And when you think back on the ancient history of wireless -- what, two years ago? -- that was just a pie-in-the-sky idea."
-- Postmedia News
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 24, 2012 B6
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