Tag: secure mobile payments

Participants in an online survey reveal that they believe a cashless future is on the way.

Harris Interactive has released the results of its most recent survey, which has indicated that among adults in the United States, well over half believe that mobile payments will replace both cash and credit card based transactions at some point down the road.

Over 30 percent of the respondents said that the replacement would occur in five years from now.

The survey was performed online from November 14 through 19, with the participation of 2,383 respondents. Each were adults and they all lived in the U.S. When asked about the replacement of credit cards with mobile payments, the 66 percent believed that this would one day occur. That said, only 32 percent of the participants felt that this would occur within the next half decade.

The mobile payments survey also looked into the replacement of cash with smartphones.

The results of the poll showed that the participants felt nearly the same way about cash as they did about credit cards in terms of their replacement by mobile payments technology. In fact, 61 percent of the respondents said that they felt that one day, we would no longer use cash because of our smartphone devices. However, only 26 percent believed that this will have happened in five years’ time.

The survey findings identified several different reasons that can explain the hesitation that consumers have regarding the use of mobile payments transactions. These can help to explain why adoption of the technology has been as slow as it has.

The survey presented the participants with a number of different reasons from which they could choose, in order to explain why they would hesitate to use mobile payments for making purchases. The answers included – but are not limited to – the following:

• Over half (52 percent) are content with their credit cards and/or cash so they don’t see a need to change.
• 51 percent expressed concerns over mobile security in terms of financial and private data.
• Half didn’t own a smartphone.
• 40 percent didn’t trust the security of entering mobile payments information into a merchant’s device.

 EnStream works to make mobile commerce in Canada secure

EnStream, a mobile solutions provider based in Canada, has reached a deal with Research In Motion (RIM), creators of the BlackBerry platform, concerning a new system that could make mobile commerce in Canada more secure. In 2009, EnStream, which is comprised of Canada’s three largest telecommunications companies, introduced the Zoompass mobile payment platform. The platform enables consumers to use their smart phones to pay for goods and services. As mobile commerce becomes more popular, security concerns are threatening to derail mobile payments in Canada, thus RIM has been tapped for its acclaimed security technologies.

RIM technology will help EnStream create new services

Through this new deal, EnStream will be able to make use of RIM’s Secure Element Manager, a system that will allow the company to manage the credentials of NFC-enabled smart phones in Canada. This move comes after EnStream finalized the sale of Zoompass to Paymobile, thus opening up the companies resources for the development of a new mobile commerce platform that may be better suited for the latest generation of NFC-enabled mobile technology. Backed by RIM’s technology, the company may be able to help bring more security to mobile commerce in Canada.

Security continues to be serious concern for consumers

Security is one of the most significant problems facing mobile commerce today. Consumers have shown interest in the concept of their mobile devices doubling as payment platforms, but have also expressed extreme concern regarding the safety of their financial information. Security faults with NFC technology and the fact that many mobile commerce platforms can be easily exploited by hackers has caused some turmoil in the burgeoning industry. EnStream believes that bringing more security to the industry may also provide it will more stability.

EnStream to bring mobile payment services to MTS customers

EnStream has also signed an agreement with Manitoba Telecom Services (MTS) to bring its mobile payment technology to MTS customers by 2013. Once these services have successfully been incorporated into the MTS network, customers will be able to make purchases for goods and services using EnStream’s technology, as long as they have NFC-enabled mobile devices.