

Why Mobile Payments Adoption Has Been Slow and Why That’s About to Change - lisper
http://www.wired.com/2015/01/mobile-payments-adoption/?mbid=synd_slate

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k-mcgrady
I doubt that any consumer really thinks about security when using mobile
payments. They have no idea how it works and assume security, just like they
do with their credit card. I think the adoption rate has already changed. It
seems like Apple Pay has done very well in it's first few months and it's
rumoured to be expanding to the UK in the next few months too.

If it is slow one reason might be NFC payments via credit cards. Lots of
debit/credit cards have NFC built in now and for payments under £20 you don't
need to enter your pin. I see lots of people using that and for small payments
it seems more convenient that mobile payments.

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spiralpolitik
IMHO the main reason that mobile payments have been slow on the uptake is the
user experience sucks. On some of the newer terminals its close to 10 screens
you have to work through to complete the transaction.

The experience just needs to be 1) Present your device to the terminal 2)
Authorize transaction using said device. If your process has anymore steps you
are doing it wrong.

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veidr
Almost completely agree, except I think maybe you have one step too many.

Mobile payments have been in common use in Japan for years, and there is only
one step: present your device. Beep! ("Boom!") you're done.

This works at virtually any convenience store, taxi, train gate, and also at
many vending machines (mostly those in train stations).

I think the reason Japan got this so many years ahead of USA etc is that it
predates smartphones -- it originally started with (prepaid/pre-charged)
cards, which have no screen or UI beyond putting them in a machine to add
funds.

Probably the reason behind that was overwhelming use of mass transit; trains
and buses provided the compelling consumer use case (not having to go to a
machine, and potentially wait in line, to buy a cheap ticket), and were
initially the only place the cards worked. They just expanded after that and
then makin smartphones do that same job was a no brainer.

Sad caveat: the iPhone (which is my main phone) is the only phone anybody here
that I know uses that _can 't_ do this.

EDIT: This is not to say that Japan is a utopian vision of mobile payments,
though; there were several competing systems before universal compatibility
was achieved, and you still can't buy everything with your
smart(card|phone)... but they work for upwards of 90% of day-to-day shopping.

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spiralpolitik
Good points. I would expect there to be some circumstances that wouldn't
require the authorization step as they would have been preauthorized (small
transactions).

Train gates and buses for example should only require presenting the phone to
the terminal to authenticate the ticket or pass you previous purchased. The
iPhone already has all the pieces (Apple Pay, NFC, and Passbook) in play to do
this and I'm sure Apple is already talking to the players in this area to fit
them together.

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jdlyga
Apple Pay works great at whole foods and walgreens. Takes about 2 seconds to
pay. More retailers just need to support NFC payments and/or have staff
trained in how to process them.

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donotbackup
Most rite aid stores already have the payment stations but they are not
activated yet ...

