BlackBerry EMEA’s vice president of marketing, Rory O’Neill, announced at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that Research in Motion is currently in the throes of many projects that will give the company a major boost in launching the next generation of BlackBerry smartphones. These projects will make the brand more visible and will also popularize the new features that will be available on new incoming T-Mobile blackberry devices as well as, Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T.
One such feature is RIM’s BlackBerry financial wallet, which is now available to the public on any BlackBerry device that is compatible with the latest BlackBerry OS 7. The wallet app is designed to speed up the checkout process for mobile purchases by keeping track of financial and banking information.
For example, the app can remember card numbers, billing information and delivery addresses, in addition to login information and reward schemes for retail websites. Since the invention of Internet commerce, companies have worked to develop and improve the process of electronic payment to be as seamless as possible: no cash, no coins, no filling out checks, no typing, and no storing credit card numbers.
“Mobile commerce is beyond the mobile wallet and there is a tremendous opportunity for brands to go beyond the buyer/supplier relationship,” O’Neill said. “Brands can now have a holistic view of the customer and serve them in an entirely new way, offering rich context based experiences.”
And RIM is not the first company to pick up on mobile commerce. Google also has a wallet app similar to the BlackBerry Wallet and other big name companies such as eBay, Apple, Visa and MasterCard are advancing their digital wallets in hopes of nabbing a share of the soon-to-be lucrative market. With these advancements, smartphone users—no matter what service provider—will be better able to handle spontaneous purchases and frequent online shopping.
Anthony Munns