Tag: near field communications

Ingenico Group compiles predictions being made by prominent mobile commerce players

With January coming to a close, predictions concerning how mobile payments will fare in 2016 are beginning to emerge. Ingenico Group, one of the world’s largest suppliers of mobile payments terminals, has aggregated the predictions coming from many of the groups most involved in mobile commerce. These predictions highlight the trends that are beginning to emerge in the mobile commerce space, which may go a long way in determining whether or not consumers will actually use their mobile devices to purchase products.

Mobile point-of-sale systems will be more common in the coming months

Creditcall, a payment service provider, predicts that mobile point-of-sale systems will become more common throughout the world. This is being driven by the number of credit card companies that are including new chips in their cards. Retailers are also driving the growing adoption of mobile point-of-sale systems, but they are also beginning to use mobile technology to process transactions made by consumers. More merchants are expected to begin using devices, like the iPad, to expedite the checkout process.

NFC technology is beginning to gain more support from retailers and other businesses

NFC technology is expected to see significant growth, in terms of adoption, this year. This technology allows for digital information to be transmitted over short distances. NFC has made up much of the mobile payments environment for several years and it is becoming more important for retailers to embrace this technology in order to effectively engage consumers. Retailers are also feeling increased pressure to embrace omni-channel strategies. Ingenico Group predicts that more retailers will adopt such strategies to provide better services and engagement to consumers.

Security remains one of the greatest challenges facing mobile payments

Security will likely be a prominent focus for those involved in mobile payments this year. Many consumers avoid mobile payments services because of concern that their financial information could be stolen and exploited. Organizations invested in mobile commerce are likely to make use of new technology to ensure consumer protection. An increased focus on security may ensure that consumers become more comfortable with the concept of mobile payments.

The South Korean consumer electronics manufacturer is taking its mobile payments system into more countries.

Samsung Pay, the mobile payments system that uses NFC technology through the devices from the South Korean tech giant, will now be headed into a broader range of countries across the globe, expanding it well beyond its very limited initial release.

The mobile wallet will be available to consumers throughout a handful of additional countries worldwide.

In a recent tweet, Samsung expressed that while the NFC technology based mobile wallet is already available in the United States and South Korea, it will become available to millions of additional customers in the very near future. This is because it will be stepping into at least three new countries in the near future. The countries that have been identified, so far, include Australia, Singapore and Brazil. This will more than double the number of countries in which the service is available and will provide the company with a considerably larger opportunity to boost its user base.

Samsung followed up the expansion announcement of its NFC technology mobile wallet with more at CES 2016.

At the Consumer Electronics Show 2016, which was held last week in Las Vegas, Samsung also unveiled a new line of NFC enabled smartwatches which would be compatible with its Samsung Pay service. This means that people won’t be limited to smartphones when they want to use mobile devices to pay for their products and service at checkout counters across the new range of countries where it will be available.

The Gear S2 smartwatch will have the mobile technology needed to be able to be used for contactless payments at points of sale that have NFC readers. Upon the initial release of the wearable technology devices, the Samsung Pay service will still be available only in South Korea and the United States. However, as the expansion of the service occurs later in 2016, it is likely that these gadgets will be able to be used there, as well.

This represents a growing trend of wearable technology devices that are becoming compatible with mobile payments. The use of NFC technology in the Gear S2 could help to push forward the adoption of both mobile payments and wearables, simultaneously, if Samsung is as successful as it hopes to be.