‘Smart’ wallets go on the market A local

‘Smart’ wallets go on the market

A local technology company has made available its addition to the growing number of “smart” accessories aimed at making life more convenient

NXT-ID, an advanced biometric and security technology development company, began selling its Wocket Smart Wallet to the public on June 1. The company, whose headquarters are in Oxford after moving from Shelton last year, has begun shipping the smart wallets from its production facility in Florida.

The company, which trades publicly on the NASDAQ exchange under the symbol “NXTD,” has not released sales numbers, but executives said they are pleased.



“There have been good numbers,” said Gino M. Pereira, NXT-ID’s president and CEO. “We are very pleased with the numbers of those purchased since they have become available.”



The Wocket, which can be purchased online for $229, was available for pre-order prior to the June 1 opening, and those have shipped and have received positive reviews, according to Pereira.

“We have a good backlog of interest in the company and in the product, so we expect that the product will ship approximately 30 days after they purchase the Wocket,” Pereira said. He added that customers will not be charged for the smart wallet until after it ships.

The Wocket works by imprinting the contents of any card -- credit, debit, loyalty, gift, and others -- onto a single card that can be programmed to be used just as the original would.

The company sees a few key groups as their primary customers, including people who are concerned about identity theft and those who are interested in new tech gadgets. The company also hopes to expand to larger audiences because of its straightforward purpose.

“People are just buying it on a practical basis,” Pereira said. “They are so fed up with their big wallets, so now they can put all they carry around into the Wocket and have it in a smaller and more secure format.”



In an interview in January, Pereira said he does not see the Wocket in competition with Apple Pay, Apple’s contactless payment method, which was introduced last year and reached the million-user mark within three days, according to company officials.

However, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco on Monday, the company released updates to Apple Pay that closely align with some of the Wocket’s features by merging rewards program cards from Dunkin’ Donuts, Panera Bread and Walgreens, among others, and storing them digitally in Apple Pay.

Nonetheless, Pereira hopes for a future where the smart wallet is the norm, not the exception.

“We hope that it becomes widely accepted. We aim to continue developing and making it better and better, and ultimately our goal is for someone to be able to use it securely anywhere in the world,” he said.