Tag: mobile apps

Consumers have little interest in mobile wallets, seeing them as relatively useless

In the U.S., consumers are finding the concept of mobile wallets difficult to understand. For several years, people have been using their smartphones and tablets for a variety of activities, including hailing cabs, purchasing products online, and reviewing products and services that they are interested in. For the most part, mobile wallets are never used for such activity, which has left many people wondering why these platforms are being so heavily promoted by companies participating in the mobile commerce space.

Wallets may not offer consumers the services that they are interested in using on a daily basis

Mobile wallets are quite straightforward in their purpose. These platforms are meant to serve as digital counterparts to physical wallets. As such, they store the financial information of their users as well as a wide variety of other digital content. All of this information can be easily accessed by users of mobile devices, but this convenience has done little to wind over the hearts of consumers. Those finding mobile wallets unnecessary are not able to see what these platforms offer than traditional wallets do not.

Falling support for wallet platforms may have a negative impact on mobile commerce

The relative malaise that people seem to have with mobile wallets has had an impact on mobile payments. Many companies specializing in mobile commerce have placed their hopes on mobile wallets. If these platforms are not being used, consumers are not likely to be making mobile payments. There are mobile commerce services that are not associated with wallet platforms, but many of the largest companies working in this sector are pushing for consumers to embrace the concept of mobile wallets.

Merchants are showing relatively low interest in mobile wallet platforms

Consumers are not the only ones that are showing disinterest in mobile wallets, of course. Merchants also have yet to be won over by the capabilities of wallet platforms. Many of these merchants are somewhat interested in mobile payments, but are not willing to support wallet platforms in order to accommodate mobile consumers.

A Bing Vision shortcut could provide greater ease of use for quick response codes.

Users of Windows Phone 8.1 based devices may find that it is now easier for them to be able to scan QR codes now that a number of changes have come along in the latest update to the operating system.

Of course, the quick response codes were far from the only change that was made in this update.

While some of the changes – such as the improvements for scanning QR codes – were more than welcome, there are others that people are finding will take some time so that they will become accustomed to them. For instance, Cortana does not have Bing Vision. However, that could be explained by the fact that it is still in its beta form. However, many are hoping that they will see that feature brought back, once more, into search.

That Bing service is used by people who scan QR codes on their smartphones.

For those who aren’t sure where to find the feature for scanning quick response codes anymore, following the latest updates to 8.1, they simply need to know where to look. There are a number of ways to return the feature to its previous form, but it is still in existence on the phone, it is simply in a new location. Bing Vision is now present under the Camera Lenses. While it is just as functional as it ever was, it does require several steps in order to arrive upon it in its new location.

Therefore, many people are opting to find new and more convenient ways to scan QRcodes on their devices following the update. Among the most popular – following recommendations from several known and trusted mobile app bloggers and news sites – is QR for Cortana, by DreamTeam Mobile. It is a free shortcut app that provides greater streamlining for these barcode scans.

All it does is create a new Star Tile that brings the device user directly into the Camera Lenses location so that all of the other steps could be skipped. From there, the Bing Vision option is available and QR codes can be scanned at will.