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.
NFC Mobile Payments Will Be Big Business for Google, Says Schmidt
Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, thinks wireless transactions, enabled by the coming wave of Android smartphones outfitted with near-field communication (NFC) technology, could turn into a serious business for the company.
Speaking to a small group of reporters late Tuesday after his keynote presentation at the Mobile World Congress here, Schmidt said Google could work with advertisers to “extend offers to phones with NFC chips.” Advertisers, he said, were interested in combining an ad and an offer, presumably at the point of sale.
via NY Times.
300,000+ Android Phone Activations Per Day, Says Schmidt
According to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, more than 300,000 Android phones are activated every day, double the number of activations reported just six months ago.
Canalys reported that in Q4 2010 the Android O.S. was the world’s best-selling smartphone platform, dethroning Nokia’s Symbian from the 10-year top position. According to Gartner, Symbian is still slightly ahead on sales if some legacy non-Nokia Symbian smartphones are included in the Q4 2010 figures.
Android has a large community of developers writing application programs (“apps“) that extend the functionality of the devices. There are currently over 200,000 apps available for Android. Android Market is the online app store run by Google, though apps can also be downloaded from third-party sites. Developers write primarily in the Java language, controlling the device via Google-developed Java libraries.
References: GigaOm; Wikipedia
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.
More via Search Engine Watch.