The mPayment industry is picking up speed as Apple refines its own platform while rivals ready theirs for market debuts.
Last week, Apple confirmed rumors that an upgrade to Apple Pay will indeed allow store credit and rewards cards to be used within the mPayment platform; users need only to upload the cards’ data to their apps. It’s part of an effort to head off competition from the likes of Google and Samsung, both of which are readying mPayment platforms of their own.
Google’s Android Pay is going to function in pretty much the same way as Apple Pay, but may have a competitive advantage in the number of devices supporting it, given that Android operating systems are available on a wide range of smartphones from a variety of different companies, and Android M will feature native fingerprint scanning functionality, which is important for mPayment authentication. Samsung Pay, meanwhile, will use a unique technological innovation allowing it to function with POS terminals even if they don’t have the NFC technology required for other mobile payments – which should make it compatible with many more retailers in the US when it hits the market.
And it’s a big market. New numbers from market research firm eMarketer indicate that last year 16 million shoppers in the US alone used smartphones to make in-store purchases amounting to $3.5 billion, and the firm predicts that 2016 will see that number rise to $27.5 billion.
With so much up for grabs, competition between the big platforms should be pretty fierce.
Source: CTV News
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