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Little Long-Term Impact Expected from Mobile Payments Trial
The Visa-Samsung mobile payments trial at the Olympics is generating plenty of media buzz, but is unlikely to have much long-term impact, Ron Shevlin, senior analyst at Aite Group told Mobile Marketing & Technology.
At the Olympics, about 850 people, including some athletes, are using Samsung Galaxy S3 running Visa’s mobile-payment application, Visa payWave, to buy goods at thousands of retailers across London, including outlets at the Olympic Park.
But once the trial is over, the terminals will likely be mothballed, at least temporarily, according to Shevlin. (Note: Visa provided some background information, but had no one immediately available to comment). “Usually, when I think of a trial, I think of something used with a small set of people in anticipation of a larger rollout. That isn’t the case here.”
While no immediate rollout is planned, Visa has said that it plans to roll out the mobile payment app throughout the UK within the next 12 months.
Shelvin doesn’t see any rollout of such a system in the U.S. that soon, if at all. The main issue with NFC-based systems, like the one in the Visa-Samsung trial is that it requires merchants to upgrade their point-of-sale systems, a costly prospect.
Mobile wallets don’t require that type of investment and are therefore going to be much more palatable, according to Shevlin. However, he stops short of the optimistic views of some of widespread mobile wallet adoption within a couple of years. Four to 10 years is much more likely, particularly as Generation Y starts taking on a higher percentage of the buying power in the U.S. compared to Baby Boomers. Baby Boomers are unlikely to change long-ingrained buying habits, while members of Generation Y are quickly adapting to new payment methods and technology.
2012-08-10 14:19:16
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