Category: NFC Technology

Mobile wallet industry still led by Apple Pay and Samsung Pay

| March 9, 2016

A recent report from BI Intelligence indicated that smartphone payments are still dominated by the same tech giants.

Mobile wallet tech using contactless payment technology will be used by approximately 148 million people around the world, said a new report that was published by Juniper Research, which also claimed that this format will be the leader in mobile device based transactions.

That said, it is clear that within that limited space, there are clear leaders that have already carved out their positions.

The Juniper Research report identified Apple Pay and Samsung Pay as the two top mobile wallet brands that have grabbed hold of the largest share of the smartphone payments market. In fact, together, they are believed to hold a 70 percent share of the number of customers who use that type of contactless payment service in stores. This suggests that those two firms could be the dominant figures in this market and may be able to keep a firmer hold on their portion of that space than newer entrants or older ones that have not been as successful at gaining user-ship.

Apple Pay leapt into the mobile wallet space quite strongly as it had been a greatly anticipated service.

Mobile Wallet - Mobile PaymentsIt launched as one of the first major entrants into the American market, which helped to ensure that it would build users more quickly than smaller players or later joiners. While Samsung didn’t arrive nearly as early, it still held onto a competitive advantage in the fact that it can be used at both NFC technology based terminals and those that are compatible with a magnetic stripe card. In Apple’s case, the mobile payments service can connect only with NFC readers.

Firms invested in mobile payments are pushing hard to gain U.S. customers, but adoption has been slow. Most consumers have yet to be convinced that there is any great benefit to using their smartphones instead of their plastic credit cards, which they already find to be quite convenient. Moreover, many people still face the barrier of comfort when it comes to feeling that their sensitive personal data will be kept secure.

Moreover, the adoption of NFC technology based contactless payments is also holding back widespread use in the United States, as only 20 percent of American terminals are actually equipped to accept transactions through those mobile wallets.

Pebble-backed Smart Strap wearable technology places a wallet on the wrist

| February 15, 2016

The new wearables from Fit Pay could soon make it possible for people to pay for products with a flick of the wrist.

Owners of Pebble Time wearable technology devices may soon be able to take advantage of the convenience of contactless mobile payments among the other benefits of wearing their gadgets.

A Pagaré smartstrap Kickstarter campaign was recently launched by Fit Pay to make this happen.

The funding for this wearable technology would be used to support its final production and to be able to bring it to market. The Pagaré payment smartstrap has NFC technology embedded into it, as well as card network tokenization. In that way, it will be possible for these wearables to be read by any POS terminal with an NFC reader, which is quite commonplace at retail checkout counters around the world.

Essentially, if the NFC contactless payments symbol is displayed at a checkout counter, this wearable technology is compatible.

To use the smartstrap wearables, a user would simply need to wave his or her wrist over the reader terminal at the POS counter. In that way, the transaction can be completed and the wearer would never have to take out a wallet and swipe or tap a card. It wouldn’t even require a smartphone to be used, as is the case with other types of mobile wallet that have been trying to achieve widespread adoption over the last few years.

According to the chief exec at Pebble, Eric Migicovsky, “It’s a great example of how our open platform allows Pebble to become even more useful in the everyday lives of more people.” There are still a few weeks left to the Fit Pay campaign, as it will run until March 9 in order to bring in the $120,000 it requires from backers in order to get these wearables moving forward.

The company is currently working directly with the suppliers for Pebble in order to be able to provide the smartstrap wearable technology in exactly the same materials, finishes and colors as the Pebble Time, the Time Steel and the Time Round smartwatches. In that way, form will not be sacrificed to function.