Mobile payments have had a long and tortured history, with analysts expecting the market for such services to have hit the upswing, only to see such predictions pushed off again and again due to any number of challenges. While the mobile payment market has seen some traction in a handful of countries, overall adoption of such offerings has still fallen short of expectations.
Many of those challenges have revolved around the hyped potential for monetization and the seemingly endless supply of entities that want to make sure they have garner a piece of that action. Wireless carriers, retailers, device makers, banks and credit card companies are just some of those players, each of which is a substantial piece of the puzzle and not willing to give up control of a “golden goose.”
RCR Wireless News spoke with Dr. Nicolai Schaettgen, principal at Arthur D. Little, about the current market for m-payment services, including tackling what challenges remain for adoption and where he thinks the market will be in the next couple of years. Hint: We could be hitting a tipping point for the near-term adoption of m-payment services.