The iWallet Corporation is promoting its line of digitally-enhanced wallets at The Luxury Technology Show in Los Angeles, and has thrown the gloves off in positioning it as a competitor to purely virtual mobile wallets such as the Google Wallet and the forthcoming Apple Pay.
In a press release, the company pointed to recent data breaches at high-profile companies JPMorgan, Home Depot, and perhaps most infamously, Apple, with the controversial thefts of nude celebrity photos from its cloud storage service. The cases “only underscored the long-term risks of storing sensitive personal, banking and healthcare data on smartphones,” said Jack Chadsey, iWallet’s CEO.
The company argues that consumers are very concerned about these risks, and in a press release referenced a PricewaterhouseCoopers report indicating that less than half the population feels comfortable with mobile payment systems, given the perceived security risks that such activity entails. The iWallet provides a safe alternative; it’s a tough, physical wallet designed to hold traditional wallet items such as credit cards along with mobile devices, and it features RFID shielding technology, a virtual ‘leash’ via a Bluetooth alarm system, and a fingerprint-scanning lock.
Chadsey sums it up: “Savvy customers opting to carry our iWallet… are able to protect their physical items and virtual data by keeping it at their side, not stored on a vulnerable server or a phone.”
It’s a forceful angle, and iWallet Corp. is probably right to aim its sights at the looming spectre of mobile wallets. Apple has a track record of getting consumers to adopt its new products into their everyday lifestyles, and with its Apple Pay system the company clearly wants to change the way people conduct commercial transactions on a fundamental level. And while the PwC report may be right about consumers’ anxieties about security in mobile payments, those attitudes could undergo a sea change as Apple’s Touch ID biometric security system gains traction in the mainstream.
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