Tag: mobile wallet

American mobile payments are ready to go mainstream

| June 29, 2016

According to Bank of America research, consumers are increasingly prepared to adopt this technology.

If Bank of America is correct, American mobile payments will be commonplace very soon. Their research suggests that consumers in the United States are increasingly ready to use this technology.

Mobile wallets are nothing new in the United States but they have yet to take off among most people.

Bank of America conducted a survey to gauge consumer opinions regarding American mobile payments. What they found was 40 percent of respondents were actively seeking out mobile wallets or already had them. This is a sizeable increase over last year’s figure. In 2015, only 34 percent of respondents felt the same way.

Clearly, there was a sharp increase in the number of actively interested Americans. This interest level is considered to be an important indicator of willingness to adopt the technology. That said, the respondents didn’t stop at simply looking into mobile payments technology.

The American mobile payments interest could move forward rapidly starting very soon.

American Mobile Payments - Bank of America Center in Austin TexasThe research determined that 57 percent of Americans would be willing to try or are already using a bank peer to peer (P2P) money transfer app.Also, 62 percent are already using mobile as their main banking method or would be willing to try it.

The active mobile app user numbers also climbed. Forty eight percent of respondents were using mobile banking apps in 2015. This year, that figure increased to 54 percent. Furthermore, Millennial interest in these mobile banking tools is very evident. That generation represents a growing proportion of shoppers as a whole. This makes their opinions on such matters highly significant.

Millennials use their smartphones more than any previous generation. In fact, 39 percent say they would prefer to interact with their mobile phones than anything or anyone else. This included their significant other! American mobile payment have the potential to become very important to this generation. Moreover, since they are one that is about to become the most important group of consumers, this information is important. After all, no matter what previous generations think, it is the Millennial opinion that will soon hold the most weight.

Samsung mobile payments take different direction than rivals

| June 23, 2016

The Korean electronics company sees its wallet app as a way to sell its devices, not fee-based revenue generation.

Samsung mobile payments are taking on rivals in the United States by using a different approach from what already exists. The company explained its goal to use the wallet app to sell smartphones over collecting fees.

This is a drastically different perspective on mobile wallets when compared to top rival, Apple.

Apple uses its mobile wallet as a part of its overall ecosystem. That said, Apple Pay, like other smartphone payment apps, is struggling for widespread and mainstream adoption. Meanwhile, its top competition, Samsung mobile payments, is going in a new direction. Samsung Pay is a strategy to encourage consumers to buy the company’s devices.

As such, this move breaks away from the typical mobile wallet model. Usually, mobile payments generate revenue through fees paid by financial partners and/or merchants. In Samsung’s case, it is an added selling feature for smartphones, tablets and other gear.Samsung Mobile Payments - Samsung phone

Samsung mobile payments will not be collecting usage fees from its financial partners.

Conversely, Apple Pay is a mobile wallet that mainly generates income by requiring its partner banks and financial institutions to pay a small charge for every completed transaction. The actual figure has not been publicly released. Equally, some reports have indicated that in the United States, it is a fee of 0.15 percent of the transaction.

On the flip side, Samsung Pay does not require its financial partners to pay a fee for its use. Instead, the electronics company aims to make it appealing to consumers, merchants and banks. That way, it will become widely available for use and will be a selling feature for its devices. This strategy uses the mobile wallet as a sales feature, not a revenue generator unto itself.

According to Samsung Pay global vice president, Elle Kim, “We’re a hardware company, and at the end of the day I think what we’re trying to do is get people who hold (one of) our phones and use it…to just love it more.” It will be interesting to see how the Samsung mobile payments strategy works against the competition.