Coin, the makers of an electronic device that works like a credit and debit card by storing information on all on your cards, is taking a pause.
On Friday, the startup said it's delaying its full product release until spring of 2015 while it refines the device and works out kinks in manufacturing. Instead, the company says it will ship what it's calling Coin beta, the latest iteration of the all-in-one card, to the first 10,000 pre-order customers who opt-in to the program.
The pushed back shipping date is not Coin's only cause for concern. Complicating the company's roadmap is the absence of a specialized security microchip that is in the process of being adopted by the US credit card industry. When the consumer version of Coin launches next year, it will not contain such a chip. The company has said that it will only begin addressing that issue after its current product begins shipping next year.
Customers who spent $55 to pre-order the device last year have also expressed concerns that Coin's promise to bring technology's simplicity to our wallets may already be behind the times. Coin has worked to address criticism by publishing periodic progress reports pots to its pre-order customers. Notably absent, however, has been discussion about these security chips.
"Coin, being in this business, has to know the changes in this industry," a pre-order customer calling himself Robert Jon commented on one of the company's blog posts. "It's their business to know this information."
A coming struggleThough Coin represents a platform and a product that hopes to be the future of how we pay for groceries, gas and restaurant bills, the device being released next year isn't future-proof.
The Coin device is deceptively simple. It's roughly the same height, weight and girth of a typical credit card. But that's where the similarities end. A tiny screen occupies the top right corner of its face, with a button below. Press the button, and the screen comes to life, displaying the name of a credit card, the last four digits and its expiration date.
The technology Coin developed allows the device to replicate the magnetic strip on the back of a typical credit, debit or gift card. It's programmed wirelessly by a smartphone app, where users store card information. How does that credit and debit card data get in there? By having people swipe their plastic through a dongle that attaches to their phone.
The end result is an all-in-one-card that aims to slim our wallets by storing up to eight cards in its memory. Users can switch between them by clicking the card's button.
Though the product caught fire among early adopters in the Bay Area last year, it inspired cheeky condemnations and mocking write-offs, with headlines like Hot New Startup No One Needs: A Credit Card for Your Credit Cards from Gawker's Valleywag blog. While there's debate over the usefulness of a device that slims down your wallet, the pressing problem is not Coin's mission, but what's missing from its prototype -- and the product that comes after.
The US credit card industry is preparing for one of its biggest technological leaps in decades. New cards arriving in customer's mailboxes are being affixed with security chips, called "EMV." These chips promise to reduce fraud by making it hard to quickly copy a card's information, and by requiring that customers sometimes punch in a passcode.
