Ready To Trust Google as Your Keys and Wallet?

As I write this it is 66 degrees on a sunny afternoon. One can really get used to a very rare Indian-Summer-in-November streak. That said, it will be dark in just a few hours, and the cold weather won’t be far behind.

I recently received an e-mail from Calvin Fine sent from his office in Melbourne, Australia. Even though we’re enjoying great fall weather, I was envious that it was spring Down Under. In a follow-on email he mentioned that the Melbourne citizenry was buzzing about beaches and BBQs while we will soon be worrying about shovels and boots.

Maybe we need to go visit Calvin for a closer look at Melbourne. In the meantime, here are some of his ideas on a set of products that he thinks we could see from Google in the not-too-distant-future:

Hi Bruce,
 
Thanks for the always entertaining First Thing Monday e-mails, and hello from a cloudy afternoon in Melbourne, Australia.
 
I’ve been thinking about Google in the context of simplifying, since reading about the Google disruption play of including free turn-by-turn navigation directions with each and every Android mobile (see abovethecrowd). I imagine a lot of people have similar habits to mine. The 3 things in my pocket when I leave the house each and every time are keys, wallet and phone. Music is on the phone these days. So is e-mail. If I’m driving some place, there’s a sat-nav and a CD player in the car.
 
In the future we’re likely to only carry one “device.” Your phone has already integrated voice communication, diary, watch, walkman, TV, maps, and more. And with cloud computing to augment process-intensive mobile computing, the phone will likely replace your laptop too.
 
But, what about keys? What about wallet?
 
Cars already run on proximity keys, most new Lexus’ unlock doors on proximity. It wouldn’t be a stretch to wire your house, car, and office into your phone. And we already happily run small value transactions on wireless devices: NTT DoCoMo's Edy mobile wallet in Japan is a prime example, as are London’s Oyster card and Hong Kong’s Octopus card.
 
The largest consumer issue with ‘contactless payment’ and proximity key systems is typically security; and one of Google’s key attributes is that people trust them. With Android running the world's mobile operating system, Google is in a tremendous position to create a global mobile, contactless payment and security system. And they could do it 'for free', at least in the sense that as a consumer you wouldn't have to pay for it. In much the same way as 'free' maps can integrate localised advertising, Google could match up buyers and sellers at the moment of truth better than anyone.
 
It’s "better than the competition" AND "cheaper than the competition," too. No AmEx service charge. No wallet to carry. No train ticket. No hassles. That’s Finance 2.0: Instant, personal, and always on your person.
 
Would people trust it? Would they use it? And who could compete with that as an offering?
 
I hope this finds you well (and not too stressed about the Yankees).

Warm regards,
Calvin

Comments

[Andrei Titov]

I think that this will not happen in a near future. Building trust in security of the personal data especially so sensitive as personal finance, health and any sort of keys in the time of almost everyday occurence of identity thefts is rather long and winding road. Another complication is differences in privacy laws between countries (see recent Google troubles with StreetView in Switzerland). My bet is that Google and its competitors (e.g. EMC's RSA, etc.) will not leave their attempts but we need more time to harmonize legal requirements and to mature technologies before adopting this.

http://ru.linkedin.com/in/atitov