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Screening near you: Cash will fly!
Are we nearing the end of the big-screen ATM? Are we nearing the end of any screen at all?
September 19, 2014 by Richard Buckle — Founder and CEO, Pyalla Technologies, LLC
There's no question today that many of us think cash might be making a comeback. Cash offers us security unlike any other payment method —who would have guessed this just a few years ago! Cash safe?
Running completely against conventional wisdom, cash might just end up being the only instrument we trust absolutely. The ease of penetration demonstrated of late by bad guys determined to accumulate as much card information as possible blows away any sense of comfort we might have enjoyed in the past.
Already governments everywhere are appalled at how little cash is being circulated as consumers stash mountains of banknotes under their beds. Erect barriers that make it hard for consumers to spend money — yes, fear is a barrier — and governments will likely fall.
Cash might be king, but only if it keeps passing through many hands. Governments everywhere must be rejoicing to read of news like this; what better way to get the recovery on track?
However, any significant rush to cash means that ATM in the future will likely be placed everywhere we turn, and the spoils will go to those whose ATM networks make economic sense — i.e., are cheap and simple.
Proliferation of ATMs will most definitely stretch the limits of maintenance staff so perhaps the time has come to shift additional responsibility for the health of ATMs back onto consumers. Possible?
Car manufacturers are facing a common dilemma when it comes to in-car navigation systems. According to a recent magazine report, Hyundai America product planning boss Mike O'Brian "predicts the built-in navigation system will be gone, replaced by cellphone-based systems such as Apple's CarPlay and Google Android Auto."
While the hardware is cheap, navigation and entertainment software isn't, and automakers would love to pull that cost (and headache) out of their cars.
In case you think this is just the sentiment of low-cost manufacturers, the same magazine reported that Mercedes Benz might be having the same thoughts.
"Rumor has it that the 'floating' navigation screens in new Mercedes cars look like tablets for a reason," the report said. "In the future, they may be replaced with docks for your iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab, or other 4G-enabled tablets."
There's more to this than meets the eye. One possible scenario making the rounds on social media: Undock your tablet and the car simply will not go: You have to dock again, follow a series of questions and then enter a secret code sent to your mobile phone.
In other words, in time car manufacturers will likely integrate these 4G-enabled tablets into the car's security — why carry around an electronic key costing thousands to replace when all it takes is popping your tablet into a dock?
In the future, even as we trust cash even more, could our access to it follow similar lines? Will the ATM of the near future even have a screen? A keyboard? Would it even need a dock? After all, the Achilles heel for many vendors is still the connector, especially one left open to the elements.
But the principle is the same — consumers will become responsible for bringing with them their own access device. And who among us will not own a smart tablet by the time car manufacturers throw their weight behind such an initiative?
On Sept. 1, the World Economic Forum released the report, "Top 10 technologies for 2014." In the middle of the list: "screenless displays." The report said:
This field saw rapid progress in 2013 and appears set for imminent breakthroughs of scalable deployment of screenless display. Various companies have made significant breakthroughs in the field, including virtual reality headsets, bionic contact lenses, the development of mobile phones for the elderly and partially blind people, and hologram-like videos without the need for moving parts or glasses.
This might lead us to believe that screenless displays will eventually include an image projected onto a person's retina, but this point might indeed be reached via the humble tablet.
"At first glance, I see some problems in going down this path," said OmniPayments CEO Yash Kapadia. "After all, somewhere on the black market there will appear the 'universal tablet' I suspect."
On second thought, Yash observed:
Depending on the creativity of financial institutions deploying such ATMs, tapping into the full power of today's tablets may spur completely new marketplaces where cash dispensing machines will become extremely simple devices devoid of almost any intelligence whatsoever! Inadvertently, we may have stumbled on another layer of security if executed correctly.
Clearly, there's a huge difference between the motivation of car manufacturers to save costs associated with navigation and entertainment software and whatever motivation drives financial institutions — but could these differences narrow radically in the near term?
One truth I have seen time and time again is this: Make a device and its interface easy and people will readily swap out older solutions in its favor.
If a bank, observing consumers' growing concern over security and their renewed comfort with cash, were to roll out a futuristic ATM that would let us to walk by, tablet in hand, and get cash instantly (with little to no software to maintain), I can see widespread deployment almost overnight.
Ultimately, it's going to be up to us to monitor and administer our own security — we do need to take responsibility for protecting ourselves. In all likelihood, the instrument of first choice to do all this will be a tablet (or the upcoming, much larger smartphones).
NFC-enabled? QR code-scanning? There are numerous options here apart from a dock, but the basic idea remains the same.
Are we nearing the end of the big-screen ATM? Are we nearing the end of any screen at all? I think the immediate answer will likely be, "Yes, we are!"
photo courtesy taxcredits.net | flickr
About Richard Buckle
Richard Buckle is the founder and CEO of Pyalla Technologies, LLC. He has enjoyed a long association with the Information Technology (IT) industry as a user, vendor, and more recently, as an industry commentator, thought leader, columnist and blogger. Richard participates in the HPE VIP Community where he is part of their influencer team.
