By the year 2018, there is going to be a considerable rise in the capabilities for these payments apps.
According to a new forecast that has now been published, by the year 2018, one fifth of all smartphones will have mobile wallet functionality, and one third of all of those payments apps will involve contactless capabilities such as NFC technology.
This report has indicated that there will be a considerable growth in the potential for these apps.
The study and report were created by Juniper Research. That firm determined that there will be two separate mobile wallet models that will define themselves between now and the close of 2018. Within the emerging markets, it will be the Store Value Accounts (SVAs) that will continue to take off. Those forms of app are catering to the massive number of unbanked individuals in Latin America, developing Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa by providing them with financial access for the first time.
In the Western world, the mobile wallet model that will become common will be different.
That model will likely be based on contactless technology such as near field communication (NFC). These launches are expected to occur throughout North America and Western Europe. That latter form appears to be facing the greatest level of challenge when compared to emerging markets, where these apps are taking off more quickly. For instance, Alipay, in China, has already managed to register 100 million users.
The so-called iWallet, Apple’s contribution to this market space, is expected to arrive at any time. This could be a defining addition to mobile payments as it could either represent the point from which these smartphone wallets start to take off in the West, or it could reveal that these apps really will be facing some massive struggles in being able to take off.
It is believed that the iWallet will be based on HCE (Host Card Emulation) NFC services. The use of HCE could prove to be a considerable threat to the role of mobile operators in the contactless payments market. It likely won’t be very long before a much better understanding of the direction of the mobile wallet will be formed.
