That is just one idea that has been floating around Mobile Industry Review for sometime; and it seems like after a trial period, people like it!
The Near Field Communications (NFC) which O2 had been trialling with Nokia has had some optimistic results. Apparently nine out of ten (90%) of the five hundred trialists said they were happy using the technology.
The Oyster Card is a hassle, and personally I hate the thing. Along with having to remember it, place it somewhere safe, but accessible is highly inconvenient.
Ewan said back in January “Integrating it into a mobile handset makes sense to me†and I have to say, I agree.
The results of this trial don’t come as much of a surprise really, when similar uses of technology have been implemented in Japan for example. I hope that this won’t be the end of the line for NFC technology; it’s taken long enough to get here, and from the results of this small, but useful trial scream that there is a strong desire, and liking towards it.
Eighty-nine percent of the trialists said they were interested in having their Oyster Card integrated into their mobile phone.
I want to know, do we ever expect a release date for this technology to be rolled out completely within London’s transport systems?
We can only hope the UK operators actually listen and invest in stuff like this.
Nice idea, but given that I read somewhere that Oyster are losing the contract come renewal time (can't remember where – it popped up in my GReader a while ago), then I can't see this happening anytime soon, sadly.
Heard the same thing, tfl was cancelling the contract with oyster and oyster was suing to keep the name and the rights to the technology, something along those lines
However, I think the it's up to O2 et al to choose an NFC provider that can work with whatever system tfl has in place, be it oyster or something else
The problem, as usual, is all the parties involved to get together and make the whole thing work. Train operators for one have been “slow” (read opposed) to adopt the oyster system fully, ie you cannot use prepay oyster cards in some train stations
In short, this ain't happening before 2012
Of course, Japan are lightyears ahead here. I saw loads of people use their phones to get onto the Tokyo Metro while I was there.
Come on UK – get your act together! This shouldn't be a single-operator initiative either, in fact I don't see why operators have to be involved at all. If a common standard could be ageed on it could just be put into phones just like Bluetooth is.
'Oyster' is the brand name for the cards as used by TfL… the current system operator lost their contract but that just means someone else will run the scheme.
The idea seems like a no-brainer to me, I hope it gets rolled out. However, it seems such a good idea that I really want to know what the objections were for the 10% that didn't like it. It could be that they were just being really fussy, or maybe there was a flaw in the system/usability.
If only….!
2008/9/2 Disqus <>
I also wonder why in cases like this they never say anything about those who didn't like it.
Sure there are privacy concerns, etc but I'm all for it
I think it's almost certainly not going to happen.
I see almost no value in it at all – if it's that great a concept to combine the two, why have I never seen someone with their Oyster card strapped to their phone with an elastic band, or simply glued to the back? I think O2 is just trying to use this as a lever to get NFC into phones “for free” for other potential applications in the future. It's also worried about being operators being excluded entirely from any futrue NFC-related deployments, and for the control to live with the handset manufacturers instead.
I just wrote a post on this
http://disruptivewireless.blogspot.com/2008/09/…
I can see some value in NFC, but I think the Oyster thing is a solution to a problem that doesn't exist, and the m-wallet is a complete loser.
Dean
Nice post, Dean!
2008/9/3 Disqus <>
I think it's almost certainly not going to happen.
I see almost no value in it at all – if it's that great a concept to combine the two, why have I never seen someone with their Oyster card strapped to their phone with an elastic band, or simply glued to the back? I think O2 is just trying to use this as a lever to get NFC into phones “for free” for other potential applications in the future. It's also worried about being operators being excluded entirely from any futrue NFC-related deployments, and for the control to live with the handset manufacturers instead.
I just wrote a post on this
http://disruptivewireless.blogspot.com/2008/09/…
I can see some value in NFC, but I think the Oyster thing is a solution to a problem that doesn't exist, and the m-wallet is a complete loser.
Dean
Nice post, Dean!
2008/9/3 Disqus <>
I think it's almost certainly not going to happen.
I see almost no value in it at all – if it's that great a concept to combine the two, why have I never seen someone with their Oyster card strapped to their phone with an elastic band, or simply glued to the back? I think O2 is just trying to use this as a lever to get NFC into phones “for free” for other potential applications in the future. It's also worried about being operators being excluded entirely from any futrue NFC-related deployments, and for the control to live with the handset manufacturers instead.
I just wrote a post on this
http://disruptivewireless.blogspot.com/2008/09/…
I can see some value in NFC, but I think the Oyster thing is a solution to a problem that doesn't exist, and the m-wallet is a complete loser.
Dean
Nice post, Dean!
2008/9/3 Disqus <>