Death Of The Business Card
By Anna Johnson on July 14th, 2009Seems that I’m not alone in my dislike of business cards. They’re cumbersome, annoying and I always seem to lose them. Actually, I’ve pretty much decided not to hand them out. Instead, I ask people to give me their business cards and then I send them an email before disposing of the cards. But surely there’s a better way?!
Well, according to TechCrunch, a company called Bump Technologies has come up with an ingenious solution to the business card problem. No, it’s not a business card scanner (not much better than manually copying someone’s details off their card), but a solution that will allow people to exchange their business details by tapping mobile phones together.
Bump, which has just raised a seed funding round from Y Combinator, is already attracting users to its solution, which currently works on Apple’s iPhone. The company plans to release applications for the Android operating system and for other smart phones in the short-term future.
To use Bump, you and the person you wish to exchange information with, launch Bump and then tap your phone together. Within seconds, based on Bump’s use of cloud technology, a photo of the other person appears on your phone and you can then confirm whether you wish to exchange data.
Of course, both people need mobile phones, and mobile phones compatible with Bump at that (iPhones at this stage), so the technology is not going to be a universal solution.
But is it just a matter of time before all phones come with Bump or a similar application to enable this simple way of exchanging contact details? I sure hope so!
July 15th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
I think it will take a while to get rid of business cards.
Gen Y\’s may embrace all things techie but not so the Gen X\’s and particularly the Baby Boomers. There are still plenty of both these groups who are in business and use business cards to provide contact details. Some folks even like to look at something real and not just stare at a mini computer screen.
Oh, and let’s not forget that Australia leads the way in mobile phone use with a massive 30% of people carrying one. The other countries (specifically including the US) lag well behind in numbers carrying a mobile phone to bump with.
So what will the remaining 70% of Australians bump? Or the multitude of non mobile phone carriers in other countries?
As I said, it will take a while.
July 19th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
I was using Infra red technology to transmit my business card to other PDA devices all of 11 years ago. It all boils down to convenience! If it only takes 15 seconds to bump compared to finding the business card in your purse or wallet then typing the e-mail address, the writing is on the wall. I will also add that the only thing strewn around my desk are business cards the rest of it looks rather neat and tidy.
Your right though John, business cards won’t disappear for a long while given cultural and social constraints. More so than the Generation adoption argument I would say is that Regional Australia is still constrained with slow internet and a lack of 3G which holds a lot of this back.
July 28th, 2009 at 12:47 am
You have gotta love this
I’m now using Evernote on my iPhone to take a snap shot of the business cards I feel are worth while. It reads the text in the photo and indexes it. You can search a name and it will find the photo of the business card. Roll on technology!