Who needs a passport when you’ve got your iPad with you
BLOGGER: JEFF BARAK 
I wouldn’t recommend throwing away your passports just yet, but it’s certainly worth scanning them and storing them on your iPad. A Canadian, heading for the US border last month to drop off some Christmas presents for his friend’s children, realized he had forgotten his passport.
Rather than make the two-hour journey back to his home in Montreal to get it, Martin Reisch decided to take a chance – he made his way to the border crossing, where he handed in his iPad and showed the border guard the scan he had made some years earlier of his passport. To his relief (and surprise), the officer waved him through, wishing him a Merry Christmas.
This probably was an example of the holiday spirit getting the better of bureaucratic regulations, but who would bet against mobile devices also becoming an official identity form in the not-too-distant future?
However, the increasingly wide-ranging uses of mobile devices, from mobile wallets, mobile health and even as replacements for school text books, doesn’t automatically translate into increased revenues for the service providers who are struggling to provide the capacity to match people’s demand for connectivity.
Right now, service providers are trying to offer the best customer experience – for example, the convenience of being able to order pizza on your phone and charge it to your monthly mobile bill – as well as to provide the network connectivity to enable mobile heart monitoring.
But in the future, it will become more and more challenging for service providers to deliver both of these, and they’re going to have to focus on one business model or the other if they want to differentiate themselves in their markets. This means either by partnering with over-the-top players and owning a superior customer experience, or by enabling and monetizing a superior network experience.
In the case of the forgetful Mr. Reisch, a superior customer experience could include offering him the same password to provide access to all of his secure data and content, so that no matter where his passport is, he can always access it.
The US border authorities, meanwhile, will be looking for a service provider that can offer a reliable, scalable network, with real-time alerts to warn of any change in connectivity.
Combine the two, and walking through a border with just the wave of a phone might no longer just be a matter of a good-natured guard.
FYI: The guy did not cross using his iPad
Reisch was allowed into the U.S. after officials checked his identity and citizenship using the driver’s licence and a birth certificate he provided, U.S. Customs spokesperson Jenny Burke told The Canadian Press.
Read more: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20120104/ipad-border-crossing-clarification-120104/#ixzz1jAw9jJrd
Thanks Mahesh, but regardless as to whether it was the iPad or birth certificate that got Reisch through the border, my central point remains: the widespread adoption of mobile devices doesn’t automatically translate into increased revenue for service providers, and they need to start thinking about new business models for the hyper-connected workd
I don’t see the advantage of having your phone as passport – what do you do if your battery dies?!
Also, have a look at French operator free.fr’s innovative new offerings, an example of how better technology enables both a better customer experience AND better network connectivity, without compromising the business models – http://gigaom.com/2012/01/09/how-frances-free-will-reinvent-mobile/
Best thing is to have a check list in IPAD itself so that it reminds you before leaving itself