2 Improve

[2improve-blog]

Payment apps

Since the introduction of Apple Pay many strive to introduce me-too apps not to be left behind. Whereas Apple hardly ever is first, they focus to improve on the user experience making their products an instant success.

What’s to beat?

MasterCard and Visa’s chip cards - wave close to the payment terminal - done

Apple Pay - wave close to the payment terminal with thumb on home button - done

Apple Watch - wave close to the payment terminal pressing the lower side button - done

Kerv ring and other chip in a product - wave close to the payment terminal - done

In recent months many new apps have seen the light of life but fail badly on the user experience:

Start-up smartphone, start-up app, wave in front of payment terminal, confirm to pay

start-up smartphone, start-up app, scan QR code, enter amount, confirm to pay, wait for cashier to confirm he received payment

start-up smartphone, start-up app, swipe screen to display barcode, have the cashier scan the code on your smartphone, press ok on payment terminal

Being technically interested I would try most of these apps. Would I continue to use them in the long term? No. What I am looking for in a new means of paying for a purchase is simplicity. Simplicity that beats cash and waiting for change, simplicity that beats credit cards with entering PIN code or signing payment slips.

Anyone not able to offer the vertical integration and simplicity of Apple Pay should focus their apps not to replace a PayWave or PayPass card - their ease of use is hard to beat - but to add value to executing / managing the payment, card, balance and reward programs.

Offer a chip in a product to simply wave in front of the payment terminal - finger ring, key ring, strap on a watch, chip on a strap, chip in smartphone case, chip in SIM slot 2, chip in a sticker to add to whatever.

Offer notifications or SMS alert of any usage of that payment chip

Offer to temporarily or permanently block/disable that payment chip within your standard smartphone banking app

Offer to temporarily switch the base currency of that chip - allowing travelers on vacation to pay in local currency avoiding bad conversion rates of some local banks

Offer to switch the card assigned to that chip on the fly allowing the client to take advantage of multiple cards and multiple rewards programs

Offer to automatically allocate payments/transactions by that chip to cards based on rules set-up by the client

Add IF integration

[2improve-blog]

ATM skimming - solved !

Just this week Apple introduced Apple Pay which will work with the new iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and the Apple Watch. 

By upgrading ATMs to work with NFC and Apple Pay, you would be able to walk up to an ATM, select the desired amount of cash you would like to withdraw (just in case you still need cash) or any other function you might want to perform, confirm with TouchID on your iPhone or the Apple Watch and you are done.

No card to insert - no card to skim, no PIN to key in - no PIN to skim. Skimming problem solved !

[2improve-blog]

Washing Machines reloaded

Home appliances big and small are getting smarter. Internet controllable power plugs, heating devices, smoke detectors, fridges even washing machines. But strikingly enough washing machines still lack some basic features that don't even require Internet.

We've got two washing machines in our laundry one from LG, one from Samsung. Both are fantastic machines offering a dial with preset programs such as delicate, cotton, jeans, sportswear, quick wash. Each program can be adjusted for more or less spinning speed, colder or hotter water, extra rinse, .... But none of the machines offers me to save my adjustments in a personal preset.

To wash my shirts I select delicate to start with, then increase the temperature from 30C to 40C and decrease the spinning from 800 down to 400 to reduce wrinkles.

It would be awesome if the machines would let me press a preset button for 3 seconds to store "my program" for future use.

Despite the machine offering all those programs doing all the washing automatically - I still need to manually add washing detergent and softener.

Wouldn't it be great if they had 3 tanks built-in

1 for fluid color detergent

1 for fluid white detergent

1 for fluid softener

All you would have to do is load the machine, select the program or your very own preset and the machine would do the rest, spin, add water, add detergent, rinse, add softener, rinse, spin ...

This feature would also help to preserve the environment. Instead of buying hard plastic bottles, more people would buy the refill bags very commonly sold in Asia.

If the machine is connected to the Internet it could alert me by sms, eMail or even add the soon empty detergent to my Wal*Mart, Target, Amazon shopping cart and ask me if I want to order or wait.

[2improve-blog]

Paid Internet at Hotels, Restaurants, Cafes

For decades hotels, restaurants and coffee shops have offered newspapers and magazines for free to attract customers and make them stay. Unfortunately most have missed the transformation to the ever connected online world. It's striking how many still don't offer Internet and those who do charge for it. Still offer printed newspapers and magazines for free but not Internet? Help the environment, save paper, save trees. Offer free hasslefree Internet allowing your customers to read the news online. Until you do we will continue to head to Starbucks instead.

[2improve-blog]

Air Miles

Last summer we travelled to Thailand flying with Air Berlin. Shortly after take-off from Berlin the chief flight attendant announced over speaker that a few business class seats where available and upgrades from economy class could be purchased by contacting the cabin crew.

Tempted to do so I called the stewardess to find out. She asked for EUR 600 per person and flight. Which was about as much as we had paid for our return tickets. I offered EUR 600 for two persons but she was quick to turn down our offer: "We should rather save our money for our vacation". The business class seats remained empty.

The idea offering upgrades after take-off - to sell a seat that would otherwise generate no more income at all - is great. It's implementation however was poor.

Selling seats effectively

traditional sale before check-in

upgrades at the gate paid in cash or with miles

online auction during boarding time using cell phones, the airline's mobile software and air miles, giving loyal clients a chance to score an upgrade at an afforable amount of miles <\ol>

[2improve-blog]

Apple's iMessage - iCall next ?

Those using iPhones with the latest iOS version 5.x might be familiar with iMessage. iMessage lets you send and receive SMS to any other mobile phone. But on top of that it recognizes - automatically - any receipient who is on iMessage too and sends those "SMS" over the Internet for free instead. And it tells you so by displaying the sent message in a blue bubble, vs the standard SMS message's green bubble. This works over WiFi, Edge, 3G, 4G. I expect Apple to introduce the same - automatic - feature for calls too. Probably with the iPhone 5 however available as part of an iOS 5 software upgrade. To enable enough users for the feature to be of value. Imagine you call anyone and the system automatically figures out whether that person is on iCall too and places the call over the Internet for free, else as a regular call. No extra software to use like Fring, Skype or Viber. No check if that person has it as well and is online or not. Easy, seemless, hasslefree just like iMessage. That might be another reason the telcos are abandoning unlimited Internet flat rates. Their business model is migrating to become wireless Internet service providers.

[2improve-blog]

Real Estate Ads

Following the hoopla about the depressed real estate market in the States I took a closer look at my favorite vacation destination FLORIDA. A number of real estate websites such as trulia.com, realtor.com or homes.com offer easy access to thousands of ads. However what I found was that most homes in those ads look the same and most ads weren't really helpful. What am I supposed to learn from a picture showing the toilet? That the rest of the bathroom is too ugly to show or that the toilet has been replaced recently? Or what is the message of a picture of the floor. Is the carpet dirty or has it been cleaned lately? No idea. Most ads fall short to create emotions, build-up my desire to buy or to highlight a single outstanding feature of that home. And very few bother to offer a floor plan. Pictures should feed my emotions and the description should satisfy my male desire for facts. What would help me to put a home onto my shortlist would be: The essential pictures - house from the street - kitchen - living room - each bedroom - each bathroom - the one oustanding feature if none of the above - landscape wideangle pictures (24 optic to capture a little more room) Valuble pictures - garden - house from garden - the view if any like waterview - the street or a link to Google's streetview if available A description to the point - site's feature system filled in - the area / neighbourhood (average, mid level, upscale) - close by schools, shopping, entertainment - condition of the house, upgrades, short comings - energy / utility systems (heating, cooling, water) - wall / insulation (wood, brick based) - windows (alu, plastic, wood frames, film, insulation) - no duplicate information, no buzzwords - preferably in bullet point style