Tag: mobile payments trends

Will UK mobile payments become mainstream with Apple Pay?

| July 23, 2015

Many are predicting that the service from the tech giant is what the industry needs to take off.

Apple’s next step for its mobile payments service was in the United Kingdom, where it launched on July 14, and now many people are wondering the same thing that was asked in the United States when it began there: will this make the tech mainstream?

Analysts believe that Apple has the power and technology to take this type of service to mainstream levels.

The Apple mobile payments service is available for users of the iPhone 6 standard model and its Plus model, as well as for Apple Watch users. Currently, there are over 250,000 different locations throughout the United Kingdom that offer these contactless payments so that money can be paid through a card that is linked to the service, without ever having to take out the piece of plastic. Furthermore, the iPad Mini 3 and the iPad Air 2 have been equipped with the ability to use the service to make in-app purchases.

There are approximately 3 million devices in the U.K. that are compatible with this mobile payments service.

Mobile Payments - UK & Apple PayThat statistic was according to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. Its figures also showed that in all of December, 2014, in the U.K., there had been 46.1 million contactless smartphone based payments made. The consumer insights director of that firm, Imran Choudhary, explained that “The market wasn’t making enough noise but now Apple is on board that will all change,” adding that “They are the ones to tie it all together and with all the eligible devices it is only a matter of time before everyone gets on board.”

That said, many similar types of predictions were also made when Apple Pay was first launched in the United States. That service stepped into a market where there were already some massive players – such as Google Wallet and even Softcard, which shut down at the end of March, despite the involvement of three massive telecoms.

Many have been turning to Apple to launch several types of markets, including mobile payments and wearable technology, but only time will tell whether or not the tech giant has the sway that is required to make such as large change in the shopping habits of the majority of the population.

CEO of MasterCard sees mobile payments eating into cash use

| June 10, 2015

While half of all American retail transactions are still completed in cash, smartphones may soon change that.

When it comes to retail purchases in-store in the United States, about 50 percent are still being completed with cash, but according to Ajay Banga, the CEO of MasterCard, mobile payments will start to change that, and it won’t be long before it happens.

Banga spoke of his opinion on mobile solutions at the Deutsche Bank Global Financial Services Investor Conference.

He explained that the area in which mobile payments will make the most striking impact is in the percentage of transactions that it will be taking from cash as opposed to plastic cards. He said that he feels that smartphone based transactions are the way ahead, pointing out that in the United States, we feel as though credit and debit cards are essentially ubiquitous, but when it all comes down to it, half of all purchases are made with cash.

Both mobile payments and cash are being used primarily for smaller ticket purchases.

Mobile Pyaments - MasterCardWhile smartphones may not be making much of a dent into larger purchases, people do seem willing to buy with their mobile devices with the total is a smaller one. That also happens to be the area in which people are most likely to pay with cash. Therefore, what Banga is predicting is that it will be cash, not necessarily plastic cards, that will start to be replaced by the use of these devices at the checkout counter.

Therefore, for items like a cup of coffee, picking up a container of milk at the supermarket on the way home from work, or picking up a pack of gum at the convenience store, a rising number of transactions will be completed through the use of m-payments instead of cash. This may also start to have an impact in other areas that have been traditionally based on cash transactions, such as taxi fares, which are still relatively new to the credit card scene.

Mobile payments are still trying to find their place when it comes to adoption and regular use and, if MasterCard’s CEO is right, it isn’t the credit card transactions that will be taken over by this technology, but the cash ones.