2015: Milestones in Wearable Payments
December 24, 2015 1:10 PM
The age of Google Glass may be over, but 2015 saw wearable technology emerge in more subtle forms such as watches, rings and other items that appear more trendy than geeky. The payments industry is working to make the most of this fashionable trend.
Apple Watch Debuts
The Apple Watch debuted in April as the first mainstream smartwatch to treat payments as a marketable feature. Popular predecessors like the Pebble or the Moto 360 did not have Near Field Communication hardware built-in.
From Free to Fee
Many wristband-based payment options are given out for free, but Barclaycard added a pricetag to its previously free bPay band in June. At £24.99 it's still much less expensive than an Apple Watch, of course.
Getting Choosy
Blocks Wearables doesn't assume its audience wants NFC, but it doesn't rule it out either. Its modular smartwatch concept lets consumers choose whether the product comes with NFC payment capabilities, GPS, biometric sensors or a range of other wearable technologies.
Hiding in Plain Sight
MasterCard's Internet of Things initiative is about putting payment security tools such as encryption, tokenization and biometric authentication into items that don't look like payment products. Its partners include General Motors, jewelry company Ringly and designer Adam Selman.
Fashion Sense
Banks and tech companies aren't in the business of fashion design, so more of them are turning to fashion industry for its expertise. One result of this collaboration is the "small change" watch (pictured) developed through Visa Europe's recent collaboration with Central Saint Martins College.
Put a Ring on It
The founder of Kerv, a London-based startup designing a payment-enabled ring, wants its product to be neither "eye-wateringly expensive" nor "thoroughly unattractive." The company met its Kickstarter goal in October and plans to ship rings to backers in 2016.
Fitness Meets Finance
Fitness trackers are among the most prominent wearable technologies in use today. Intuit is drawing inspiration from this trend in the design of its GoPayment Sales Goal Tracker app for small businesses. Just as health nuts like to track their calories burned, Intuit's app can show hourly, daily and weekly progress toward sales goals.
