Mobile phones have increasingly become tools that consumers use for banking, payments, budgeting, and shopping. Given the rapid pace of developments in the area of mobile finance, the Federal Reserve Board began conducting annual surveys of consumers’ use of mobile financial services in 2011. This 78-page report, “Consumers and Mobile Financial Services” (March, 2015) examines trends in the adoption and use of mobile banking, payments, and shopping behavior and how the emergence of mobile financial services affects consumers’ interaction with financial institutions.
Google and Apple NFC Mobile Payments Battleground
Recent reports have suggested that the Apple iPad and the iPhone 5 will have integrated Near Field Communication (NFC) capabilities that can be used for mobile payments, as well as other applications. NFC involves a chip that transmits a short range, high frequency signal in order to communicate with nearby devices or transfer payments.
Google also has grand plans in the mobile payment space through Android OS phones. Google’s Eric Schmidt talked about Google and mobile payments at the recent Web 2.0 Summit when he announced that the “Gingerbread” Android release will have integrated NFC.
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