Mobile Payments: Will Smartphones Soon Replace Cash and Credit Cards?

By Karla Robinson
April 24, 2012

According to a survey conducted by Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center, 65 percent of technology experts and stakeholders agree that mobile payments will be widespread by 2020.
Considering the strong push into mobile payments by PayPal and Google, eight years might seem pretty long but those polled felt the transition will take time because “people will resist technology that wants to learn everything about their personal purchasing habits,” AllThingsD reports.
“There is nothing more imaginary than a monetary system… Of course we’ll move to even more abstract representations of value. Other countries are already content to use their phones; we’ll catch up eventually,” Harvard professor Susan Crawford told Pew.
“The 2020 date might be a bit optimistic, but I’m sure that this will happen. What is in your wallet now? Identification, payment, and personal items. All this will easily fit in your mobile device and will inevitably do so,” commented Hal Varian, Google’s chief economist.

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