Media for [telecom] Disruptions: How Smartphones Are Making Wallets Obsolete

[telecom] Disruptions: How Smartphones Are Making Wallets Obsolete

Disruptions: How My Smartphone Emptied My Pockets

By NICK BILTON DECEMBER 9, 2012

Growing up, I noticed that something happened to my father as he aged: his wallet expanded with each passing year.

There were new credit cards, membership cards, coffee cards, business cards, pictures of his family, stamps and other plastic and paper things, added almost weekly. Eventually, his wallet grew so large that he would pull it out of his back pocket when he sat down, dropping it on the table like a brick.

As I've grown older, something entirely different has happened to my wallet: each year, it has become slimmer. Things that once belonged there have gradually been siphoned out by my smartphone. Last week, I realized I didn't need to carry a wallet anymore. My smartphone had replaced almost everything in it.

So, it's gone. Add that to the pile of things - my address books, Filofax, portable music player, point-and-shoot camera, printouts of maps - that have melded into the smartphone.

So where did the things that used to live in my wallet go?

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