Interesting post over on 'See Into S60' about the ultra convergence typified in the 'Boo for You' video, worrying that with so many security and ID-related functions built-in, losing your smartphone or having it fail might be catastrophic. Read on for the link and my thoughts...
Read on in the full article.
I think there's a way round most of these problems.
As I understand it with some of the security / ID features don't need phone power as such (e.g. they're like London Underground Oyster cards).
It is not that difficult to build in protection for really vital stuff like wallet / ID / keys etc.
I kind of imagine this conversation happening when locks or (more realistically) credit cards were first introduced - 'but I might lose my key/ credit card' etc etc. I also think the benefits of having it on your phone should be appreciated (aside from convergence) - instant summaries of payments / instant uploads to central records / greater security (tieing biometrics to a phone is more practical than to card).
I do think think the what happens if I lose my phone argument has some merit, but that said losing your wallet can be a fairly traumatic experience. Its a lot easier to duplicate (and just as vitally lock out) the contents of the phone that it is to duplicate the contents of a wallet.
Its not going to happen overnight but it will happen. In London I could see 'Oyster built into phones' becoming very popular very quickly. The think what would happen if Oyster were then extended to small purchases (newspapers / coffee) and so on... People would probably stop carrying loose change around. I'm sure there are a variety of other scenarios for this too.
The interesting bit is going to be the companies doing the backing up of personal data, and the wiping of the device in case it is stolen (or mislaid). What will happen when you want to switch providers, for instance? What happens when you are abroad, and the phone gets stolen? What is all this stuff going to cost?
The relation between operators and their customers is not the best one possible, and I think this is going to be the deciding factor in the adoption of this technology.