Smart Card Product Development in an Internet-Based CRM Environment

Abstract
Smart cards have been successfully deployed in Europe and Asia. The European Community considers them imperative and is funding 65 card development projects. In the US, however, the cards hold less interest and have been less successful.

Technology diffusion research indicates social learning is critical to adoption. A small cadre of early adopters, through visible daily use of new products, creates a perception among other consumers that new products are beneficial and desirable.

This study developed and deployed the Sony Wave Smart Card?, a Sony FeliCa-based technology smart card Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application. The study involved US early adopters, 30% of whom adopted and sustained use of the card for six months. These early adopters appear prepared to seed the market. The paper describes the product development and research methods used in this study and the potential to deploy the product into a high density social environment with desirable applications to stimulate broader adoption.

Keywords
Concept Design, CRM, FeliCa, Handheld Devices and Mobile Computing, Marketing / Market Research, Product Management, Prototyping, Smart Card, Ubiquitous Computing / Smart Environments, User Research, User Studies.

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First presented at the conference on Designing for User eXperience, November 3-5, 2005, San Francisco, CA