Optus unveils smartwatch to pay for goods under $100
FORGOT your wallet? No worries, there’s a new smartwatch that lets you swipe and pay at the register.
AUSTRALIANS could ditch their wallets and merely swipe a smartwatch at the register to pay for goods under a plan unveiled by Optus today.
The country’s second largest telco made the announcement at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, showing off working, proof-of-concept smartwatches that doubled as prepaid Visa debit cards.
Optus also promised to launch a range of payment-ready smartwatches in Australian stores by the end of the year.
Optus digital payments director Gilles Novel said the telco wanted to challenge the wallet with the new addition to its Cash By Optus program, banishing cash payments and allowing users to leave the house with nothing but their keys and a smartwatch.
“This is not a replacement for your credit or debit card,” he said. “We intend to replace cash.”
The basic, proof-of-concept smartwatches, created with Hong Kong firm ConnecteDevices, work with both Apple and Google-bases smartphones and feature NFC chips operating like those in credit cards.
Mr Novel said the watch could be used to make payments by itself, without a phone, as contactless card readers would “actually see the watch as a normal credit card”.
Only payments below $100 could be made with the smartwatch, he said, and users could top up the account using a smartphone app.
The app would also show the balance of the Heritage Bank debit card account and transaction details after syncing with the watch.
The Cash By Optus program currently allows users with one of 110 compatible NFC-chipped smartphones to swipe their phone to make payment in stores, but Mr Novel said smartwatches would deliver greater convenience and involve Apple iPhone users who had not been able to participate in the scheme previously.
The watches would not work with Apple Pay or Samsung Pay programs, though neither has been confirmed as coming to Australia.
Visa mobile vice-president Brad Green said Australia was a natural market for smartwatch-based payments due to its record rate of contactless card readers installed in retail stores.
“It is the most advanced country in the world for contactless payment,” he said. “Last month (contactless transactions) exceeded 60 per cent of Visa’s in-store transactions.”
While the company promised to release smartwatches for purchase by the end of the year, Optus mobile marketing vice-president Ben White said it was also considering issuing free wearable payment devices to get more customers using the technology.
“We may also look at other form factors like a very simple band,” Mr White said. “It could be something that they all receive when they sign up with us. For us, it’s about how to expand the universe of potential users as soon as possible.”
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