If there’s one thing all humans have in common, is that we’re all lazy in one way or the other. Who wants to dig into our pockets to pay for items when a mere sunglass can do the job? That’s what Visa is planning when the company announced a pair of prototypes at SXSW.
A single NFC chip lives inside the prototype sunglass that is linked to the user’s Visa account. As it stands, instead of swiping a debit or credit card and tapping on numbers, the user only needs to tap the sunglass on the payment terminal to finish the transaction.
For many, cutting out need to use cash on a regular basis is the future commerce, and Visa is trying its best to be at the forefront before it takes off in a huge way.
“It ties back to our tagline of everywhere you want to be,” according to Chris Curtin, Visa's chief brand and innovation marketing officer, to CNBC. “Without it it's hard for us to fulfill our tagline. Our view is we take form factors that you don't expect to be payment-enabled like sunglasses or maybe like a ring and expose to the market that maybe it can be.”
Sunglasses not yet available for sale
If you’re looking to purchase one of these sunglasses right now, well, you’re out of luck. Visa is testing the waters to see if there’s demand for an NFC sunglass. The company is hoping it can get a bank or an important brand onboard to sponsor a possible rollout. SXSW is a great place to begin.
There are several companies at the event seeking to invest into the next big thing.
Chances are, a few might have believed in the argument of having an NFC chip placed inside sunglasses in a bid further push the digital payment initiative.
Will Visa’s sunglasses experience success?
Wearables are still finding it difficult to break away from the smartphone. Everything the Visa sunglass can do, a smartphone can do as well.
It simply means the company must come up with a convincing argument on why consumers and businesses should invest money into a piece of hardware without any unique features.
It’s going to be a tough sell, but not an impossible one.
