Cengage Advantage Books: Fundamentals of Business Law Today 10th Edition by Roger LeRoy Miller

Exercise 1

Several years ago, customers at certain Starbucks locations in New York, San Francisco, and Seattle began downloading an iPhone app to pay for their cappuccinos. Once the app is downloaded, the customer pays by simply flashing a bar code that appears on the iPhone's screen. Today, more than seven thousand Starbucks locations accept payments from all types of smartphone-based payment systems.
The Competition Will Become Fierce
The promise of a "mobile or digital wallet" is becoming reality. Banks, credit-card issuers, and, of course, AT T, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless all want to be part of the smartphone payment system revolution. All wireless carriers have agreements with American Express, Discovery, MasterCard, and Visa. In fact, Visa has its own e-wallet service.
Mobile payments can take many forms. American Express's digital payment system, Serve, allows person-to-person payments over mobile phones. Some merchants that already accept American Express cards accept payments via mobile phones. In addition, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo have created ClearXchange, which also allows bank customers to make person-to-person payments using mobile phone numbers.
Linking Digital Wallets to Other Apps on a Smartphone
According to those in this burgeoning field, the Holy Grail is a link from a digital wallet to another app within a single smartphone. Google, for example, is combining its Google Wallet with its Google Offers (a discount-deal app).
Presumably, when more app-enabled "stores" are linked to digital wallets within smartphones, mobile payment systems will grow rapidly. Mobile pay volume is only about $150 billion, but that is expected to explode as the mass market adopts these systems.
Critical Thinking
Does having a digital wallet in an iPhone, Android-based phone, or other smartphone entail more security risks than carrying a physical wallet? Explain your answer.