I wasn't always a huge fan of convergence, not for our devices. I had a phone and a music player for a long time, and it probably had more to do with the fact that I just got used to that situation more than I didn't want my music player to be my phone. Eventually, I saw the light, and now my phone's more of a music player than a phone.
For others, the idea of converging different devices into one may not have had anything to do with music, but maybe pictures. Using our smartphones as our go-to camera may have just seemed wrong to someone out there when it started taking off, and now I'd be willing to bet that most of those folks just do it out of habit now.
As our smartphones become even more important to us, even more integral tools to our daily lives, they're going to continue to adopt other technologies and uses to make them even more worthwhile and important. Our smartphones used to just be devices that could help us shop from home, even away from our computers, to perpetuate the idea of a technologically-empowered, but lazy, society. And now, companies are focusing on health and fitness, putting the tools we need into our most important devices to keep us going, to earn more points, climb leaderboards and otherwise just be healthy in as many different ways as possible.
Eventually, maybe, our phones will go back to just being devices that make calls. But not anytime soon.
There's still one area where I'm just not really a big fan of yet, when it comes to using my phone for something. I'm perfectly okay with it as my music player, or my fitness tracker, or my main camera. But, when it comes to paying for things? I feel like I'm that old person on the porch, yelling at kids to get off my lawn -- even when they're still on the street. That's how much I just don't consider mobile wallets, mobile payments of any kind, something I want to have anything to do with.
I've used it a few times now, but my usage pattern is far, far below what companies want me to be. With ISIS available since 2013, and plenty of other mobile payment systems out there, with Apple still rumored to jump on board with further improvements to their Touch ID security precaution, there's definitely a large slice of attention being applied to the way we buy things.
And yes, I've paid for things on my phone using apps, usually to pick something up later in the day, but I've only ever used my phone, with a card saved onto it in some way or another, as the tool itself less than a handful of times. And I can honestly say that I've never actually wanted to use my phone to pay for something.
This is probably the same situation as before, with the music players, and eventually I'm going to just start using my phone as my card(s) and not even think twice about it. As security precautions continue to improve, it's not all that terrifying of a thought, but it's just not something that I've found myself actively subscribed to quite yet.
What about you? Have you been using your phone as your main tool of payments for quite some time now, or do you refuse to do it? Let me know!
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