Oyster was introduced to London after I left the city a few years back – it’s a system where you charge a card that can be waved close by an reader at a ticket barrier or by a bus driver. I took this photo because I thought it was a good representation of the ‘Battle For The Bulge’ trend – but it also questioned whether it was just the telephone that was driving the trend.
People use Oyster cards in the same way they use their ‘magn etic’ security passes at work: people put the card in their wallets and purses and bounce their wallet against the readers to get on the Tube of bus. Note, how they don’t take out their card.
So what you get is this direct connection between this mobile device – your wallet in this instance – and travel. So what this demonstrates is that the wallet is one of the parties that is fighting to be the ‘bulge in your pocket’. People have been walking around with a wallet for hundreds of years – but with a phone for only, maybe, ten. Maybe we should stop thinking about making a phone or an iPod that does all things – but a wallet that can play music and make calls…
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Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London (’Ken’ to the locals) is running a trial to open up Oyster to allow retail purchases on them, newspapers etc, thereby removing all those bulky coins from our pockets. Perhaps one day the ‘bulge in the pocket’ will become a ’small rectangular protrusion’. But if Thomas Pinks ‘Traveller’ shirt takes off (hidden pocket in cuff perfect for keeping an Oyster card in), pockets will become a thing of the past!
http://rfid.idtechex.com/knowledgebase/en/casestudy.asp?freefromsection=122
http://www.thomaspink.co.uk
March 29th, 2006 at 6:32 am
I saw these “contactless smartcards” in Hong Kong, and I loved them (except they were called Octopus cards there). Also, you could buy food and drinks from vending machines, pay for groceries, parking, etc.
March 30th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
Hey, this is sort of contactless smart card has been used in the Lisbon transportation system (bus, subway, trams) since 2002!
They’re called “Lisboa Viva”
There’s an interesting article in this week’s Newsweek “Toss the wallet and grab the mobile”. Check it out.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12113217/site/newsweek/
April 5th, 2006 at 5:29 am
I’m sure it has. I wanted to put it down because I was in London and it helps discussion around the larger trend ‘Battle of The Bulge’
April 5th, 2006 at 12:39 pm