This year will make it much easier for consumers in Australia to make purchases using smartphones.
Telcos in Australia are giving a significant kick to their intentions to bring mobile payments to consumers throughout the country so that they will be able to use their smartphones or tablets to pay for products or services at a store’s checkout counter.
This could be the first step toward making credit cards obsolete within the country.
Although mobile payments are a move that has been in the works for several years and very little action has actually been seen until very recently. Even the most recent steps have not been enormous, and the term “contactless payments” remains unknown to the majority of consumers, even among those whose devices are capable of the transactions.
Though the contactless mobile payments concept has great potential, it has been failing to gain traction.
The idea behind mobile payments is quite simple. It involves using a smartphone or tablet that is either waved over an enabled reader at a point of sale in a store, or tapped against it. This automatically transfers the funds necessary for making the purchase from the user’s credit card or bank account, into the account of the store.
The primary barrier faced by this type of mobile payments is the fact that only a small percentage of smartphones are actually enabled with the necessary NFC technology (near field communication) that allow these transactions to occur. This was held back even further by the release of the iPhone 5 by Apple, which shocked the mobile world when those chips were notably absent.
Vodafone and Telstra believe that this year will mark a difference in this trend. They believe that with many more NFC technology enabled devices entering the marketplace, it will represent a brand new opportunity for mobile payments to take off.
According to Dr. Hugh Bradlow, the chief technology officer at Telstra, “It’s been promised for a long time, but by next year many devices on the market will incorporate near field communication.” He went on to explain that in the mobile payments marketplace, “NFC has been a slow burn, but it will likely become entrenched next year and we plan to be a big part of that.”
2013 may be a major year for the mobile sector
The coming year is expected to be very significant in the realm of mobile technology and mobile services. Over the past 12 months, more consumers have become reliant on their mobile devices in their daily lives. This has created major engagement opportunities in several industries and many companies have begun focusing more heavily on mobile consumers. In 2013, this focus is expected to become more acute on the mobile sector, especially as more companies develop services that are very specifically targeted at the mobile demographic.
Location-based marketing to begin picking up more momentum
Location-based marketing and services are expected to see a boost in 2013. More companies are beginning to see the value of engaging consumers through location-based services. Social media sites like Foursquare and Facebook exemplify this potential channel of engagement. Advertisers can use location-based marketing campaigns to great effect and consumers are all but guaranteed to engage in such campaigns because of their curiosity and their constant connection to their smart phones and tablets.
Mobile gaming to continue showing promise
The mobile sector has been attracting a significant amount of attention from the game industry. Mobile gaming is expected to take off in 2013 as well. Though the mobile gaming space is considered a crowded market by many, there is still significant financial opportunities therein. By the end of 2013, the mobile gaming market is expected to hit $9.8 billion, with the possibility that the Android platform will become the dominating force in the mobile gaming business. In-app advertising is also expected to become more prevalent as game developers find that consumers are willing to engage in such advertisements.
Mobile commerce will likely be a major focus of many companies
Mobile commerce will likely reach new heights in the mobile sector in 2013, powered by NFC technology or not. Companies like PayPal and Apple are currently looking for alternatives to NFC technology to further their goals with mobile commerce. Much of the mobile commerce space will continue to be dictated by the technology, however, as several companies in the technology and telecommunications industry have already invested heavily in the development of an NFC-based mobile commerce infrastructure.
