Cyriac Roeding of shopkick has a piece over at CNNMoney today that argues that mobile wallets alone will fail. “The problem with mobile payments is that payment isn’t a problem in the shopping world,” the wireless veteran argues. Instead, the key for mobile payments is in creating a “more human” shopping experience by greeting consumers on their phones as they enter the store and accessing loyalty programs, discounts and suggestions of things they may want to purchase.

I agree that mobile payments alone are a solution in search of a problem, as Roeding writes (and as I wrote more than three years ago). And I agree that the key lies in providing value to consumers via a single app that holds loyalty program information, shopping lists, coupons and other things that make it easy to spend and save. But I doubt that many consumers want apps that “make products come to life in the store,” as Roeding writes, or taps them on the shoulder with ideas about which new products to buy. The mobile wallet will need to provide value to thrive, but part of that value will be in leaving us alone most of the time.