BREW: Micro Payments For The Masses?
News.com reports on an upcoming update of BREW (Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless). The software is mostly intended to serve as a broker for micro-payments:
The company on Monday released a new version of BREW, or Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless, that lets cell phone service providers broker "minitransactions" that allow customers to pay a few cents for add-on feautres to games or small amounts of data.
The software, which is typically used to funnel downloadable ring tones, games and video mail programs to consumers, breaks "new ground," said Gina Lombardi, Qualcomm's senior vice president of marketing and product management.
Though this is promising for the cellular providers, intent on selling leagues of celebrity-endorsed ringtones, wallpapers, and video games, it seems promising for the fledgling blogging industry as well.
The difficulty, in many ways, with micro-payment systems has been cultural more than anything else. Before the Internet, we loosely thought about things in terms of the dollar. Items falling below that price point were relegated to the "trivial" category -- essentially free. This created a force against things that were extremely low in price. As a result, it was very difficult to persuade consumers that items with sub-dollar prices were of value.
With the advent of the Internet era, we saw a remarkable reversal of this notion. In the frenzied rage to win eyeballs, mindshare, and supposedly customers, the Internet industry threw everything out the window and gave away everything, including the kitchen sink. Under this new paradigm, everything was free. In comparison, it was now virtually impossible to stimulate sales and value on a micro scale. Consumers have been spoiled on the promise of free.
In the last year or so, we've seen some interesting forces bubble up that have re-vitalized the consumers' point of view. Perhaps the most notable are the Apple iTunes Music Store and the string of copycat services that have stirred consumer interest in the 99 cent song purchase. With 1 million plus purchases via Apple's store alone, there's growing interest and acceptance.
The ever-evolving cellular network providers, constantly seeking new sources of revenue have taken to 'a la carte' pricing scenarios. The majority of services can be added to one's account for seemingly low prices, as low as $1.99 a month and up. The more widespread use of phones in the young-adult and teen markets have also provided outlets for micro-payment systems, like BREW.
For years, many have doubted the potential of micro-payment systems. Are we approaching a crucial tipping point? Are these penny and nickel payments the benjamins of a everything-for-free-based value system?