apendleton, interesting thought. I'm on the marketing and sales team for swivelCard. I wanted to share with you my experience in the field of technology. I previously worked for a technology solution company. Their solution is a 100% greenification to very LARGE events & trade shows. The platform offered every exhibitor to trade & distribute information digitally. My last event with them was 14 months ago. My number one take-away was, even with the most advanced technology available people still use business cards.
Beyond that, I attend an average of three networking meeting a month that typically have 100+ professionals in attendance all of which use business cards.
I'll agree with you partially, standard physical cards might be on the way out. However, I personally believe they will be replaced with a technology that carry a little more value.
jahewson, I can carry 50 swivelCard with me to a networking event. I'd need a bag to do the same with a USB. Even if I had the plastic credit card versions of the same.
Beyond carrying them around, my swivelCard has access to every discount offered by the USPS for bulkrate and EDDM campaigns.
saroshk, great points. However, I feel you don't understand our solution completely. First off, their is an inherent need for print-to-web solutions. This has been an obvious demand with technologies such as augmented reality, quick response codes and near field communication. This demand has been created mostly by marketers. The advancements in the algorithms that effect both Search Engine Optimization and Email is making marketing online a difficult thing.
This has created a push back over to direct marketing and self-promotion.
Our swivelCard platform isn't a solution for a USB drive. If that was the case, I'd agree completely with your comment. Our swivelCard platform is closing the gap on print-to-web compatibility issues. Globally only 1 in 5 people own a smart phone. Things like QR, NFC, AR, Evernote only provide a solution for a very small part of the problem. USB "PORTS" on the other hand are in abundance. This fact makes swivelCard the most universal solution for anyone looking to reach a large audience/demographic with a print-to-web solution.
I also wanted to touch on your point regarding "getting an email address". I agree, I doubt anyone would plug in a swivelCard to get someones email. To be honest, swivelCard makes an email address a moot point. I can take one swivelCard and assign it to you and give you direct access to my laptop via a screen share. Or I can take one swivelCard, attach it to a dropbox shared folder and share information with you that way. Yes, we could do that via an email, but I'm sure you and I both can agree in the world of sales (business) some people don't share their personal information (email).
You also mentioned "cloud based services". The idea behind cloud based platforms is to keep people connected to an experience. Almost all cloud based platforms can be shared through a simple URL. swivelCard lets you exploit this feature by simply copying and pasting that URL into any point of communication on the card. Meaning, I can take 200 swivelCards and attach them to 200 separate dropbox folders.
You are correct in regard to some of our existing customers like photographers and videographers. And they do use it to share their portfolios, but the more interesting use-case you haven't imagined. A photographer can actually use swivelCard as a cross-sell. Instead of including a CD with digital versions of client photos they can sell their personal business cards as a part of the photo packages.
When you stop thinking of swivelCard as a thumb drive and start thinking about what it really is, you'll understand it has limitless potential for sharing digital/cloud based solutions that are accessible by everyone.
Cix, it is possible, but keep in mind in order for the NFC to transmit you literally have to be on top of the device and positioned just right. NFC is the most secure and convenient way to transmit information without an application. A good example of NFC in real world point-of-sale applications is Mastercard/Visa Paypass solutions.
No doubt some people will just simply refuse to adopt certain technologies.