The overall message from the first day at the Las Vegas event was that the United States is the hardest country for adoption.

The mobile payments message from the experts on the first day of the Money 2020 emerging financial services and transactions event was that the United States is the most difficult market to break into.

The reason given by the speakers was that each individual state has its own licensing issues and regulations.

John Muller, the PayPal general counsel and vice president, legal, compared the entry of mobile payments into the United States to trying to get started in fifty different countries.

Mobile payments are the next phase for PayPal after tremendous successes in traditional online transactions.

According to Muller, PayPal innovations have allowed that company to stand out above the rest in traditional online payments, and the company intends to move forward with this type of original thought and strategy for successes in the smartphone sphere. Among the areas in which he stated that they stood out above the rest included:

• Conversion of ACH payments into realtime – converting Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments into realtime meant that they needed to make assure payment to the merchant even before PayPal, itself, had received the funds. This was a considerable risk on their part.
• Focus on transactions over payments – starting with eBay, PayPal made it easy for sellers to be able to offer a quick and simple place to complete a transaction with from buyers. They used Pay with PayPal and Buy Now options to fit the payment method inside the transaction itself.
• Provided sellers with a debit card – this was a PayPal branded card that was issued through a bank. This gave them the opportunity to offer a 1 percent cash back to sellers who used the card and, therefore, their PayPal accounts.

These first phase areas turned PayPal into a type of risk management based company. The second phase took four years and it required them to overcome issues such as fraud, in which phishing emails for tricking consumers into revealing their passwords became more commonplace. The worked with legitimate email providers – such as Google and Yahoo! – to weed out these fraudulent emails.

Now, after overcoming many barriers, Muller hesitantly revealed the following predictions for the future of alternative and mobile payments:

• New “crypto currency” based payment avenues that are not based on cards.
• A greater influence from small merchants regarding the leaders in this highly competitive market.
• Features such as loyalty programs, skip-the-line, and more, providing companies with considerable data, even at a time in which consumers hesitate to reveal their personal information.

Muller’s opinion is that mobile payments and wallets are the future of the digital space, and recommends that companies offer both of these options as opposed to selecting a single platform.

Check back tomorrow at Mobile Commerce Press for the next latest announcements from Money 2020 in Las Vegas.

The automaker’s supercar is not only advanced on the road, but also in its mobile compatibility.

The Volkswagen XL1 is already being seen as one of the most advanced vehicles in the world, as well as being among the most fuel efficient, but now the auto manufacturer is taking the additional step of adding augmented reality to its repair manual in order to ensure that this automobile keeps itself on the cutting edge right down to the finest detail.

This additional mobile feature is available to iPad users for extensive ownership and maintenance information.

Through a partnership with Mataio, Volkswagen created an augmented reality iPad app that gives the device user the ability to view step by step instructions for the repair, replacement, dismantling, and reassembling of each of the 261-mpg supercar components. Although this is not the first time that an auto maker has added AR to its manual, this is by far the most extensive use of the technology as it has been applied for every intricate component and not just general information about basic maintenance.

The automotive environment lends itself very well to the use of augmented reality technology.

Metaio was selected for the augmented reality repair manual as the company is currently a leader in AR apps, from printer repairs to catalogs. Auto repair fit right into the type or project that they create.

Audi, corporate cousins of VW, have already released an augmented reality app that allows owners of the A3 to better get to know their vehicles and their features. This technology can also be very helpful in guiding mechanics around the complex component systems located under the hood of the vehicles, and that is just the additional step that Volkswagen has taken.

Before beginning any work on the Volskswagen XL1, mechanics now receive a set of instructions regarding the use of the augmented reality app so that it can be initialized for the specific task that must be accomplished. The mechanic is provided with a virtual silhouette of the vehicle which, when viewed through the iPad screen as a kind of viewfinder, overlays the image on the actual vehicle.

Once the augmented reality image is aligned, the mechanic is provided with a number of steps, including the tools that are required, tolerances, double checking real and virtual parts (in 3D relation to one another).