While most agree that it’s about time we consolidate the stupid amount of cards that many of us carry in our wallets, there’s some disagreement as to how we should go about doing this. While Apple and Google have been pushing to integrate these cards into our smartphones, Qvivr believes that the solution to this problem is Swyp, a smart wallet system that still uses a physical card.
Everybody, from Apple to Google, has a digital wallet these days that takes the credit cards, loyalty cards, and other cards out of our pockets and moves them onto our mobile phones. But to Qvivr, the startup behind Swyp, the latest “smart” digital wallet system to hit the market, there’s no way millions of merchants around the country are ready to abandon their legacy credit card readers. Apple and Google may want think it’s time we all paid wirelessly, but Qvivr begs to differ. That’s why the $99 Swyp, on sale today, with a limited number of $49 preorder units, and which is expected to ship this fall, looks and feels like a credit card. It’s thin, metal, and has a small digital display. It can hold up to 25 cards, and unlike purely wireless digital wallets, Swyp can be read by traditional credit card readers. Even better, Qvivr says, the card is secure and learns users’ behaviors, anticipating the card they want to use, based on time of day or location.