Tag: nfc technology

Google, Samsung, and Apple may have trouble engaging consumers in various markets

Google, Samsung, and Apple have all entered into the competitive mobile payments field and are looking to compete with one another for the favor of consumers. These companies may be facing an uphill battle, however, as the majority of consumers are more comfortable using traditional payment cards than they are using mobile wallets. A new report from Juniper Research shows that the number of people involved in the mobile commerce space is growing, but consumers are still more willing to use their credit and debit cards.

Report predicts that 148 million people will be using mobile wallets by end of year

According to the report from Juniper Research, 148 million people throughout the world will be using their mobile devices to make a purchase in a physical store by the end of 2016. An estimated one in five point-of-sale systems in the United States now support NFC technology, which forms the backbone of mobile payments. The report also shows that there is a major uptick in the number of cards registered to mobile payment systems when they launch in new markets. When Apple Pay launched in China, some 40 million new cards were added to the service in just 24 hours.

Registering cards with mobile wallets does not translate into using new payment devices

Consumers registering their cards with mobile payments services does not mean they are actually using mobile wallets, however. The report from Juniper Research shows that just 22 million consumers in the United States have decided to transition away from traditional wallets to their mobile counterparts. Even with the availability of services that can be used with any point-of-sale system, consumers are still more comfortable with traditional forms of commerce.

Europe may be the most attractive market for mobile commerce

Companies participating in mobile commerce are becoming more focused on Europe, where payment cards have become more secure and NFC technology is already quite popular. Europe may serve as the tipping point for the mobile payments space, as consumers in this region are feeling more comfortable with paying for products with their mobile devices.

The new wearables from Fit Pay could soon make it possible for people to pay for products with a flick of the wrist.

Owners of Pebble Time wearable technology devices may soon be able to take advantage of the convenience of contactless mobile payments among the other benefits of wearing their gadgets.

A Pagaré smartstrap Kickstarter campaign was recently launched by Fit Pay to make this happen.

The funding for this wearable technology would be used to support its final production and to be able to bring it to market. The Pagaré payment smartstrap has NFC technology embedded into it, as well as card network tokenization. In that way, it will be possible for these wearables to be read by any POS terminal with an NFC reader, which is quite commonplace at retail checkout counters around the world.

Essentially, if the NFC contactless payments symbol is displayed at a checkout counter, this wearable technology is compatible.

To use the smartstrap wearables, a user would simply need to wave his or her wrist over the reader terminal at the POS counter. In that way, the transaction can be completed and the wearer would never have to take out a wallet and swipe or tap a card. It wouldn’t even require a smartphone to be used, as is the case with other types of mobile wallet that have been trying to achieve widespread adoption over the last few years.

According to the chief exec at Pebble, Eric Migicovsky, “It’s a great example of how our open platform allows Pebble to become even more useful in the everyday lives of more people.” There are still a few weeks left to the Fit Pay campaign, as it will run until March 9 in order to bring in the $120,000 it requires from backers in order to get these wearables moving forward.

The company is currently working directly with the suppliers for Pebble in order to be able to provide the smartstrap wearable technology in exactly the same materials, finishes and colors as the Pebble Time, the Time Steel and the Time Round smartwatches. In that way, form will not be sacrificed to function.