U.S. Market Slow to Adopt Mobile Payment Systems and Technology

By emeadows
October 1, 2012

While banks, merchants and technology companies have bet billions of dollars on mobile payment technology, it’s not likely they’ll see any return for years to come.
“Mobile payments and purchasing at the physical point of sale have experienced little adoption in the U.S. marketplace despite abounding innovation in mobile and payments technologies,” according to a report from Javelin Strategy & Research.
As more people get smartphones, mobile payments in general and NFC (near field communication) specifically will have more room to grow.
That same report from Javelin Strategy & Research estimates that by 2016, 72 percent will own a smartphone, up from the current 51 percent.
“We think NFC is a great user experience and today provides the broadest reach in terms of merchant coverage compared to other technologies,” says Robin Dua, head of product management for Google Wallet.
Many had hoped that the recently released Apple iPhone 5 would come equipped with the NFC-enabled chip in order to push the process along. But the phone does not include an NFC chip.
“Equipping the most popular phone with NFC would have a been huge education moment for consumers and a big validation for NFC,” notes Thomas McCrohan, an analyst at Janney Montgomery Scott.

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