It seems like only yesterday when Coin made their initial public announcement, a YouTube video that garnered thousands of views in the first couple of hours. Their product, an advanced electronic “card” that can store multiple credit cards, received a large of preorders before running into some production problems.
“Two years ago, a startup promised the problem of bulky wallets filled to the brim with multiple credit and debit cards. At the time they only had seven employees, but thousands of would-be customers.
“He ordered it maybe two years ago. But the release date kept getting pushed back.”
“We were struggling to produce 1,000 devices of which maybe 500 would work, semi-work,” said Coin founder and CEO Kanishk Parashar.”
Today, Coin may finally be ready for the big time.
“You load all your cards on with the stripe reader. Then push the button to find the one you want to pay with.
And after testing all over San Francisco, it’s safe to say it usually works.”
It’s worth wondering if the market opportunity for Coin (and their competitors) has passed by. Between EMV and mobile payments, the technology landscape in payments is shifting quickly. An electronic card that costs $100 (you read that correctly) and doesn’t include EMV or NFC may be a tough sell. But on the other hand…
“they’ve just rolled out a rewards program and say it could soon pay for itself.”
Overview by Alex Johnson, Senior Analyst, Credit Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
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