Tag: google mobile payments

Mobile commerce convenience remains most attractive feature among consumers

Just two years ago, there had been a significant amount of hype surrounding Google’s efforts in the mobile commerce sector. The company had introduced its Wallet application, which aimed to make mobile payments somewhat common among consumers and the company had made several moves in its various business sectors to make itself more accommodating to mobile commerce. While some of these initiatives have been less successful than the company had anticipated, Google remains invested in the mobile commerce sector and continues to introduce new services therein.

Wallet receives some criticism for lack of convenience

Part of the allure of mobile commerce lies in the convenience it offers to people. Consumers have praised mobile commerce platforms for their ability to make shopping and paying for products very easy and straightforward. In the past, platforms that did not offer consumers an adequate level of convenience received harsh criticism and, in some cases, ended up failing in their given market. Google’s own mobile commerce platform has received such criticism, which has encouraged the company to take measures to make the Wallet more attractive to consumers.

New feature allows for quick mobile payments

Google has announced a new update for its Wallet platform that will allow users to purchase products and applications in as little as two clicks. This is accomplished through the new Instant Buy API that has been introduced to the Google Wallet. This API allows app developers and merchants to offer instant but services, essentially allowing consumers to conduct a mobile transaction in a very simple manner.

New feature may encourage consumers to use Wallet platform

Google believes that the new capabilities of the Wallet will help consumers become more comfortable with the concept of mobile commerce. Many consumers have criticized the Wallet platform in the past because it did not offer an enjoyable experience, a problem that Google expects will be put to rest with the application’s new checkout feature. So far, Rue La La and Expedia are among the companies testing out this new quick checkout feature.

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”.