As I discussed in Part One, the sky is the limit when it comes to mobile wallet technology.
The big brand credit card issuers: American Express, MasterCard, Visa, and Discover Card, along with every other card issuer and wannabe credit extension intermediary are all already into the mobile wallet space.
Their offerings vary and competition between them will be as brutal as it always has been. And that's good for consumers.
Creating choices for consumers to drive business will lead to more innovation and more services offered at more competitive prices. At least, that's the way the free market is supposed to work.
But, traditional credit card issuers that are forcing banks to compete to offer credit to card borrowers, aren't the "disintermediators" I talked about in Part One.
They help spread banking relationships across the spectrum, they do not remove banks from the equation. And because banks are all in the present equation, pricing pressures aren't prevalent and fees and costs remain stubbornly high.
But as you'll see, that's about to change.
The Greater Fear for the Banks
What banks fear most in the burgeoning mobile wallet world are New Barbarians breaking down the gates that traditionally walled off banks from meaningful interlopers.
The biggest, baddest New Barbarians at the gate are some of the biggest names in the Internet world, the social media world, and the telecom world.
If you want to make a fortune on the mobile wallet future the giant players and Barbarian disintermediators to watch and invest in include: Google, Yahoo (yes, Yahoo), Microsoft (believe it or not), Facebook (when it goes public), Nokia, Research in Motion (yes, I am advocating buying Nokia and RIMM), Apple, Verizon, and Vodafone.
There will be other giants worth buying, but until the ground shakes from their emergence, these giants have a giant head start in the mobile wallet world of the future, starting now.
Of course, keep in mind that the scope of this series is intentionally broad.
So, it's not the place to give specific reasons to buy specific companies. My purpose is to explain to readers the extraordinary opportunities inherent in the mobile wallet future.
But, if you want to know why these specific companies will be huge winners in mobile transactions and what they are doing to warrant their own exceptional futures, as well as when you should buy them, take heart. Keep reading Money Morning.
As it takes shape I will follow this report with specific recommendations accompanied by all the reasons and metrics you'll need to make informed investment decisions.
In the meantime, here's why these businesses are primed to rake in profits on the digital wallet phenomenon.
I'll use PayPal as the example of where things are now and where they're going.
Already, PayPal, the online payments juggernaut that eBay cleverly bought for a mere $1.3 billion in stock back in 2002, is giving banks nightmares.
It's not that PayPal doesn't incorporate banks in its business model, it does. But it does more than facilitate credit card transactions for buyers and sellers on eBay.
The threat to banks, and the direction bank disintermediators are taking, is transparent in what PayPal offers once there is a balance in your PayPal account.
Your balance can be electronically transferred to your checking account, you can request a check, you can withdraw cash from an ATM with a PayPal debit card, you can use your PayPal debit card (debits your PayPal account) for purchases where it's accepted, and you can buy anything on eBay with what's in your PayPal account.
Buying and selling through PayPal without a bank in the middle, which is possible because people trust PayPal to hold their money and transfer payments effectively, is the quintessential example of how new technologies are disintermediating banks.
Seeing how Facebook, with its almost 900 million users, can directly facilitate transactions between its "members" by doing what PayPal does, opens up the window to new commerce possibilities that can be facilitated digitally through a trusted mobile device directly connecting business buyers and sellers and facilitating person-to-person money transfers.
There will always be giant killers sharpening their tech offerings to stake their claims in the mobile wallet world.
Some companies will change the face of commerce and shape the future. We'll want to keep an eye on these agitator upstarts.
Some will be bought by larger concerns and some will go public.
What's important right now is knowing who some of them are and what they're doing to shape the mobile wallet future.
In Part Three next week I'll name these "giant killers."
And since he's no longer directly a part of the Wall Street power structure, he is willing to show you how to capitalize on them. This report is just one way Shah helps investors level the playing field.
His Capital Waves Forecast is another.
To learn more about Shah Gilani click here. You'll be glad you decided to follow along.]
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About the Author
Shah Gilani boasts a financial pedigree unlike any other. He ran his first hedge fund in 1982 from his seat on the floor of the Chicago Board of Options Exchange. When options on the Standard & Poor's 100 began trading on March 11, 1983, Shah worked in "the pit" as a market maker.
The work he did laid the foundation for what would later become the VIX - to this day one of the most widely used indicators worldwide. After leaving Chicago to run the futures and options division of the British banking giant Lloyd's TSB, Shah moved up to Roosevelt & Cross Inc., an old-line New York boutique firm. There he originated and ran a packaged fixed-income trading desk, and established that company's "listed" and OTC trading desks.
Shah founded a second hedge fund in 1999, which he ran until 2003.
Shah's vast network of contacts includes the biggest players on Wall Street and in international finance. These contacts give him the real story - when others only get what the investment banks want them to see.
Today, as editor of Hyperdrive Portfolio, Shah presents his legion of subscribers with massive profit opportunities that result from paradigm shifts in the way we work, play, and live.
Shah is a frequent guest on CNBC, Forbes, and MarketWatch, and you can catch him every week on Fox Business's Varney & Co.