Are smartphones dumbing down mobile billing?

Smartphone with Mozilla browser

Gartner research reveals that in Q2 2008, 10.5% of all phones sold worldwide was a Smartphone. While it’s great to see functionality rich browsers on mobile devices along with big screens and fast connections, the problem with emulating PC browsing is that it dumbs down the potential for mobile commerce.

On the mobile web today it’s simple to collect money from consumers worldwide through their mobile phone bill with just a single click. These things, and many others are nowhere near as simple to achieve on a PC through broadband today. This is partly because PCs are typically shared and static, compared to the personal nature of a phone which is always on and always with you.

Capabilities like on-bill payments are delivered securely by operators through Bango’s mobile billing services. In effect the operator is providing a “Smart Connection” – it’s a long way from the stories of operators turning into dumb pipes we saw a few years ago…

But as we rush to get smarter phone capabilities that are closer to the power of a PC we must take care not to dumb down our smart connection. Fortunately, plans are afoot to ensure this doesn’t happen with some operators already working with Bango to securely identify people prior to payment.

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