The latest on NFC payments
The race for which digital wallet is going to rise as the people’s choice is on.
As it stands the big three digital wallets out there are owned by Google (the Google Wallet), Apple and PayPal. Apple’s Apple Pay, is on the rise after their new iPhone 6 and Apple Watch release, which came with the feature inbuilt. Square is another merchant that’s jumped into the contactless phone payment playing field. Although it is known as being a payment gateway through swiping cards, it also offers merchants the ability to collect payments directly from the Square app of a customer’s phone using its Square Wallet.
One competitor to look out for is Visa’s Visa Checkout. A few days ago they began an ‘aggressive’ rollout of their system, launching in seven countries. Some of Visa’s launch partners included Pizza Hut, United Airlines, and Staples. According to the Press Release, Visa is looking to jump on the back of the momentum digital wallets have gained in recent times to really make a splash in the world of card-less payments.
An Exciting Future
As it stands, making payments from smartphones isn’t the norm. Most of us still use credit cards. After all, the Visa’s payWave is still a relatively new invention, and is only now taking roots as the norm. First comes contactless credit cards, then comes the rest.
Although using mobiles to tap away your money isn’t a part of the first world’s collective quotidian as yet, it’s bound to happen. It’s an inevitability. And the more big players that are creating and tweaking digital wallets, the better. Furthermore, the exciting thing about the development of many of these new systems is that they're actually cloud based. There's no NFC, no connecting to your physical card to your phone. How long until we pay with a fingerprint and no phone? (Hint: a company has already developed this technology)
For now though, the race to become the world’s go-to digital wallet is still on. At this early stage, it’s still tough to predict who’s going to come out on top. If Apple’s Apple Pay, which on the iPhone 6 uses a fingerprint scanner to ensure that only verified users are making payments (and it doesn’t even require an app!), kicks off, it could become common place among Apple users.
On the other hand, it’s definitely possible that, like credit cards, people will own and use multiple digital wallets. How these wallets will link up to your credit cards, banks, and other involved parties is another matter again, further muddying any predictions we might now make about how the future will unfold in the world of the digital wallet.