Tag: apple mobile payments

Companies may holds significant sway over the future of mobile payments

Commerce is changing as mobile technology begins to play a bigger role in the lives of people around the world. Traditional payments are becoming more cumbersome to consumers, causing many to look for more convenient ways to purchase goods and services. Mobile has become the answer to this problem, with consumers flocking to the concept of mobile payments. As with many other aspects of commerce, a handful of companies and organizations are expected to have a major influence on this sector. Amazon and Apple are among those companies.

Amazon begins breaking into mobile commerce

Amazon has shown strong interest in mobile payments for some time, given that much of the company’s business is firmly within the online world. The company is consider an e-commerce giant, putting it in a position to establish itself as a leading power in the mobile commerce field. Indeed, Amazon has been working on its own mobile payments platform that is being designed with security in mind. Apple, on the other hand, has been very cautious of mobile payments, showing serious concern for mobile security.

Apple showing interest in taking mobile payments to a new level

It had been anticipated that Apple would break into the mobile commerce field with the release of the iPhone 5. This, however, was not the case, as the iPhone 5 did not end up supporting NFC technology as had been expected. While Apple had adopted a slow and steady approach to mobile payments, the company may soon be ramping up its efforts. Those involved in the mobile commerce industry suggest that it would be difficult for the company to break into a sector they do not specialize in, largely due to the various issues involved in general commerce.

Apple may serve as a platform for third party services

Apple has been showing signs that it is interested in service as a platform for mobile payments conducted through third parties rather than developing its own mobile commerce platform. To this end, Apple is likely to have significant sway over the industry, as it will play a role in determining which mobile payments services are viable and which could be considered insignificant.

Formerly loyal customers are switching brands with each new service and product unveiling.

As the device battle rages on between Apple and Samsung, the mobile payments market is becoming a central battleground for the device manufacturers, as they pull out all the stops to draw consumers to not only their iPhones and Galaxies, but to their smartphone wallets, too.

Though iPhones are generally considered the industry head, it is Samsung that is leading the way.

The Korean electronics company features a broad range of Galaxy devices, available at different price points. This has made it the global leader with a recently reported market share of 29 percent in the 2012 fourth quarter. This is a massive increase over 2010’s market share, which was 8 percent. Apple is holding steady with a market share of 21.8 percent as of the same period of time.

As the two companies battle over device sales, mobile payments have also become an area for competition.

At the moment, these two companies appear to be each others’ greatest competitive threat both in device sales and mobile payments use. The primary battle is to be able to keep up with the latest in innovation, or it will be very easy to fall behind. This has also involved a number of attacks from within the companies.

For instance, on the day before the Samsung Galaxy 4S was unveiled, Phil Schiller, the chief marketing officer at Apple, gave one of his very rare interviews to the media, in which he openly criticized the “fragmented” software at Android, and on the Samsung devices, themselves.

This type of battle is expected to become even more fierce, say analysts, as the saturation point of the smartphone marketplace, and now the mobile payments market, approaches. This will mean that the growth of the companies will be driven primarily by stealing customers from one another, as opposed to trying to find customers that have not yet been reached.

That said, as much as Apple can criticize, author Clyde Prestowitz (of “Three Billion New Capitalists: The Great Shift of Wealth and Power to the East” fame), pointed out that in both device sales and mobile payments, “Samsung is very dangerous for Apple”.