On The Shores of Tomorrow

And so, everything has been redifined. The mobile phone for example, is no longer playing the functions of a mobile phone i.e. to receive and make calls.

It is now a music channel, as MP3 to listen to pre-recorded music, or a radio, a tv, a camera, a videocam, a calculator, a mini computer, an internet access where one could do literally thousands or even million things from banking to sending emails on that little thing called the mobile phone.

But of coz, visionaries and missionaries would always take it to the next level.

How about paying bills, sending money to each other no matter where in the world just by using sms throuh your mobile? It is already happening in Japan and now in Malaysia a company is seriously taking it to the next step where one could just use their mobile by touching at terminals in shopping complexes to pay for their shopping bills.

Already, Malaysians especially in cities like KL are getting used to the Touch N Go cards to pay for tolls, LRT, trains and even bus tickets.

So, how would Malaysians at large react to this new phenomena? One thing for certain, it requires lots of educating the consumers.

But for the meantime, get informed. Just spend some time to read the following article as a food for thought before jumping on any bandwagons of change as a business or career...


世論 What Japan Thinks
From kimono to keitai; research Japanese facts and figures through translated opinion polls and surveys.

Majority of mobile phone wallets sit unused
By Ken Y-N ( June 15, 2007 at 22:42) · Filed under Uncategorized
With the Japanese market getting frankly rather crowded, with new electronic money services being launched every other week it seems, japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by goo Research on the matter of Osaifu Keitai, or mobile phone electronic wallets.

Demographics
Between the 31st of May and the 2nd of June 2007 1,093 members of goo Research’s online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.2% of the sample was male, 17.1% in their teens, 19.5% in their twenties, 18.0% in their thirties, 17.6% in their forties, 16.6% in their fifties, and 11.2% aged sixty or older.

Most new mobile phones are equipped with the FeliCa chip, the RFID electronics from Sony that powers almost all the smart cards in Japan, so it is perhaps not terribly surprising that the awareness of Osaifu Keitai is so high. I’ve actually never owned a phone with the chip, however.

Research results
Q1: Do you know about Osaifu Keitai (mobile phone wallet)? (Sample size=1,093)
Know of it81.4%
Heard the name, but don’t know what it is15.8%
Don’t know it at all2.7%

Next, from the sample 435 people, or 39.8%, had phones that had the required chip inside. They were then asked the following question:
Q2: How often do you use your Osaifu Keitai (mobile phone wallet)? (Sample size=435)
Often use it (to SQs)14.0%
Sometimes use it (to SQs)13.6%
Hardly use it36.3%
Never used it63.7%

Summing up the first three responses, we see that 36.3% have used their mobile phone’s electronic cash features; however, this is down eleven percentage points from the last time they inquired about this data.
Q2SQ1: How do you use your mobile phone wallet? (Sample size=120, multiple answer)
VotesPercentage
Paying for shopping, restaurants11595.8%
Paying for using public transport4638.3%
Membership card, point service3831.7%
Paying for net shopping1613.3%
Instead of a season ticket1512.5%
Instead of a movie, concert ticket108.3%
Other00.0%

Q2SQ2: How much money do you currently have stored in your mobile phone wallet? (Sample size=120)
0 yen6.7%
Up to 1,000 yen8.3%
1,000 to 3,000 yen28.3%
3,000 to 5,000 yen20.8%
5,000 to 10,000 yen22.5%
Over 10,000 yen13.3%

Of the 120 frequent or occassional users, 67.5% also carried contactless IC cards, but of the 315 who rarely or never used their mobile phone’s electronic cash features, only 48.6% also carried a card-based electronic cash solution.

Related articles:
Mobiles to replace cash and plastic in ten years?
Mobile phone electronic wallets gaining users
Mobile phone electronic wallet hardware penetration high, user penetration low
Over one in four have lost a mobile phone, vast majority reclaimed

One Of The Last Few of the Gentlemen

Last Sunday, December the 2nd, me and my other half were invited to a private meeting with a friend and his dad who happened to be the great guy, a friend we made a few years back while in that particular company from Down Under.

And we had a great afternoon of fun amidst the brain storming session.

To begin with, being in his presence already made my day. A gentleman in every fibre of his being. This is a man who still teaches at a local University and shares his wisdom through his talks as a professional speaker and the President of The Malaysian Association of Professional Speakers.

It was a feeling of total comfort and security being in the presence of a dear friend with a great thinking mind embraced by a set of values that I am totally comfortable with.

Here is a man who has contributed so much and yet been robbed of his dues many times because there are just plain too many
'respectable people' with positions out there who are anything but respectable in their integrity and 'educated' yet devoid of a thinking mind who has little regard for other people's intellectual properties. And despite all those unpleasant experiences, he continues to stand tall with his believes and values of what is right and wrong.

His passion has always been teaching and sometimes that became the brunt of his son's joke for being paid peanuts. But as he always said, "It is my passion." And it's quite difficult for the common people to appreciate that. Who would understand for people like us to take days to prepare for a talk? Or days to prepare an 8 page presentation slides?

We spent a couple of hours together and we left refreshed. The whole meeting was to say the least, therapeutic.

And the world's thirst for such simplicity and honesty shall never be quenched for this man is one of the rare breed left in this universe. One of the last few of the gentlemen...

The other one that I had the privilege of knowing some years back has passed on. The late Tan Sri VM Hutson, one of the founders of Zoological Society (The Zoo) in Ulu Klang and The Outward Bound School in Lumut Perak.

So guys, appreciate and enjoy the great mind of this dear friend of ours for all of us are but mortals...


Dato Dr. Omar a.k.a. 'Pak Sheikh'.

Thank you Sir, for the wonderful afternoon.

Yours truly,

MuhdAbdullah.
KL.