Why Pay Attention to Mobile Payments?

It isn't always completely clear why people who care about the mobile business should necessarily pay attention to  "mobile payments," not a subject that represents the most-popular subject on this site.


The reason is that "mobile payments" is an answer to several key questions.  "What business are you in?" is one such important question. "Where will you find future sources of revenue?" is another key question. "How will you do that?" is a third important question mobile and fixed network executives have to ask themselves, and answer. 


One of the by-now clear implications of the Internet is that it enables competition on a different scale than in the past. In other words, "people who aren't in our business" can get into your business. 


The other salient observation is that new industries tend to get created when attackers use the Internet to disrupt an existing business. It isn't simply that the legacy industry is changed; sometimes an entirely new industry emerges. 


Mobile payments is akin to a massive collision of galaxies. Banking, telecom, retailing and marketing are huge industries in their own right, but find themselves colliding in new ways around the use of mobile to shop and pay. 


So the humble thesis is that when industries that big collide, something equally big is going to emerge. Hence, the coverage of mobile payments.


nevertheless keeps getting talked about. It's a strategic