It’s now an inescapable phenomenon for consumers at retail outlets, restaurants, and even their doctor’s offices — mobile payments.
In particular, payments made via Near Field Communications (NFC)-enabled mobile handsets are red hot today and projected to account for $130 Billion in worldwide consumer retail spend by 2020.
According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, this equates to 254 million mobile users making 5 payments per month at an average of just below $9 per transaction.
And, if you haven’t already guessed, Apple has played a major role in both real and projected growth for this market.
“The launch of Apple Pay is significant because it means all major smartphone vendors support NFC-based mobile payments, but it also provides a credibility boost for the NFC payments sector as a whole,” says Nitesh Patel, Director, Wireless Media Strategies. “Furthermore, continued efforts by payment networks, for example MasterCard has set a target of all MasterCard payment points supporting NFC in Europe by 2020, will be crucial in stimulating its use and adoption.”
Although “traditional forms of payment” like cash and plastic credit cards will remain dominant worldwide in the foreseeable future, mobile payments will continue to erode these payment methods through the end of the decade.
