It might make it easier to abandon ship as they'll be leapfrogging the difficult (apparently) chip and PIN adoption issue. However, 2016 is only 2.5 years away so it seems unlikely that cards will disappear by then. And there's always the flat battery issue.

I have no doubt though that various mobile and touch payment systems will be more widespread by then and card use will decline as a result. Or for poorer areas, leapfrog the whole card thing, as is happening in Africa.

With these kind of predictions, I always like to backtrack and see what was being predicted an equivalent time ago.

Here's The Guardian in 2010 saying that it might all be happening by the time of the 2012 Olympics . Did it?

Here's the BBC in Feb 2013 saying "eight years"