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.
Report: Mobile Wallets in the US – Review and Analysis
A new report entitled Mobile Wallets: The U.S. Landscape by Mercator Advisory Group identifies U.S. mobile wallets by category and technology.
The physical wallet might someday go the way of the checkbook, used by few and no longer a necessity. Growing consumer use of smartphones is creating a market for mobile wallets capable of serving many of the same purposes physical wallets served for centuries but now are able to take advantage of a plethora of new functions made possible in an increasingly digital marketplace. [Read more…]
Mobile Payments Report: Opportunities and Strategies for Credit Issuers
A new research report from Research & Markets entitled Opportunities and Strategies for Credit Issuers, examines mobile payment opportunities For US credit issuers.
The major card networks began supporting contactless payments nearly a decade ago, but consumer and merchant adoption has lagged considerably. Several startups, as well as established firms outside of the financial services industry, are marketing enhanced mobile payment services capable of causing significant disruption to the consumer payments value chain. [Read more…]
Mobile Payment Strategies Report: Opportunities & Markets 2011-2015
A new study from Juniper Research has determined that the total value of mobile payments for digital and physical goods, money transfers and NFC (Near Field Communications) transactions will reach $670bn by 2015, up from $240bn this year. These forecasts represent the gross merchandise value of all purchases or the value of money being transferred.
The new Mobile Payment Strategies report revealed that all segments will exhibit 2x to 3x growth over the next five years. This growth will be driven by the rapid adoption of mobile ticketing, NFC contactless payments, physical goods purchases and money transfers as people in both developed and developing countries use their devices for everyday transactions. [Read more…]
Research Report: Positioning for Payments in the New Mobile-Social Technology Era
We are at the beginning of a new technology cycle as consumer adoption of mobile and social media extends the reach of the web and integrates those media into the physical world.
Facebook is only eight years old, and yet its planned $5 billion IPO is the largest Internet IPO ever. As in every new technology cycle, network effects make room for new players and the creation—and destruction—of vast amounts of wealth.
The Gang of Four—Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google—is a group of network players entering the banking and payments environment. How will the strengths and weaknesses of the Gang of Four play against those of major financial institutions, payment networks, and wireless carriers? Surprisingly, PayPal rates on equal footing with the Gang of Four when it comes to innovation and emerges as a possible leader in the next tech cycle.
Research & Markets recently released a report entitled Positioning for Payments in the New Mobile-Social Technology Erathat focuses on the relationship of brands to consumer perceptions of trust, innovation, and privacy in order to identify opportunities and threats.
Primary Questions
- What is the newest technology cycle? Which brands are positioned to take advantage of the next cycle?
- What models are developing that will intersect with the financial services space?
- How will the strengths and weaknesses of the Gang of Four play against those of major financial institutions, payment networks, and wireless carriers?
- How well do consumers trust the Gang of Four compared with the major financial institution, payment network, and wireless carrier brands when it comes to their financial information?
- How do consumers rate the Gang of Four compared with the major financial institution, payment network and wireless carrier brands when it comes to protecting their private information?
- Which brands are viewed as most innovative?
- How do customers of the primary financial institutions rate their own institutions on the issues of trust, innovation, and privacy?
- How should brands position themselves to best compete in the new technology cycle?
Methodology
The report is based mainly on data collected online from a random-sample bank benchmark panel of 5,878 consumers in December 2011. The survey targeted respondents based on proportions of gender, ethnicity, age, and income representative of those of the overall U.S. online population. The margin of sampling error is ±1.28% at the 95% confidence level.
It is also based on a survey of 5,211 consumers conducted online in October 2011 on KnowledgePanel. This sample is representative of the U.S. census demographics distribution and is recruited from the Knowledge Networks panel. Data is weighted using 18+ U.S. Population Benchmarks for age, gender, race/ethnicity, education, census region, and metropolitan status from the September 2011 Current Population Survey (CPS) and household Internet access from the October 2010 CPS Supplement. The margin of sampling error is ±1.73% at the 95% confidence level.
Table of Contents
- Overview
- Methodology
- Executive Summary
- Platforms That Are Able to Gather the Biggest User Base Usually Gain the Most Power and Wealth in Each
- Technology Cycle
- Mobile + Social Defines the Newest Technology Cycle
- Wealth Is Created—and Destroyed—During Each New Technology Cycle
- Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook
- Platforms That Gather the Biggest User Base Usually Gain the Most Power and Wealth in Each Technology Cycle
- Mobile Platform
- Two Diverging Views of Mobile Success—Open (Google) vs Protected (Apple)
- Social Media Platform
- Mobile-Social Integration Opens Opportunity for Competitor to Move on Facebook
- Game-Changing Business Models Rapidly Emerge During Times of Technological Upheaval
- Tablets
- Alliances Can Use Mutual Strengths and Weaknesses Can Fill Gaps to Respond Faster and with Better Products
- Javelin TIP Model for Mobile Wallets
- Trust
- Apple Leads in Innovation—at Least for Now
- Innovation
- Privacy
- Don’t Count out the Financial Institution’s Primary Relationship with the Consumer
- No Brand Reaches the Gold Zone—Without an Alliance
- Appendix
- Related Research
- Companies Mentioned
– Amazon, American Express, Apple, AT&T, Bank of America, Chase, Citibank, Discover, Facebook, Google, MasterCard, Microsoft, PayPal, Research In Motion, Sprint, Twitter, U.S. Bank, Verizon, Visa, Wells Fargo, zvelo
More information: Research and Markets
Mobile Industry Predictions Report: 2012
The Yankee Group has just released its free 17-page 2012 Annual Predictions Report, which looks into what the future has in store for the ever-growing mobility landscape.
Overview:
The world is in transition and in the year ahead, mobile will be both the protagonist and the subject of this instability. During the last five years, networks and the information they carry have plugged more than 2 billion new participants into the mobile economy. The winners in this landscape will be those players that can scale quickly and treat each user as a unique customer.
Report Highlights:
- The mobile gold rush is global in scale a and touches all customers. In the last five years, 2 billion new users joined the mobile revolution. Looking ahead, mobile workers and consumers will embrace tablets, mobile content and personal cloud services. At the infrastructure level, the operator imperative to monetize all-IP networks will drive investment in policy solutions.
- Asia-Pacific takes the lead in tablet sales. Yankee Group forecasts U.S. tablet sales will total 17 million in 2011 and almost 25 million in 2012. Similarly, tablet sales in all of Europe will exceed 15 million in 2011 and reach more than 26 million in 2012. And tablet sales in the Asia-Pacific region will total 20 million this year and reach almost 39 million in 2012, more than 50 percent above the U.S.
- Diameter signaling is taking off. Yankee Group has seen significant request for proposal/request for information (RFP/RFI) activity and expects spending on IP-based Diameter signaling to more than double between 2011 and 2012—growing from U.S.$22 million to U.S.$45 million. And overall, we see the market mushrooming to U.S.$212 million in 2015, for a whopping CAGR of 57.2 percent.
- Personal cloud services are hitting the high-growth phase. We forecast 17 percent of professionals with three or more devices will adopt a personal cloud service for online storage, backup and synching.
- Economic woes threaten operators. Western European operators will see churn increase from approximately 2.3 percent per month today to 2.4 percent by the end of 2012, despite operators’ ongoing efforts to migrate customers to postpaid services and long-term contracts linked to new smartphone purchases. The world is in transition and in the year ahead, mobile will be both the protagonist and the subject of this instability. During the last five years, networks and the information they carry have plugged more than 2 billion new participants into the mobile economy. The winners in this landscape will be those players that can scale quickly and treat each user as a unique customer.
For more information and to download the report: 2012 Annual Predictions Report: Mobile
Google Launches Mobile Wallet
In May Google announced its mobile wallet, which uses NFC for tap and pay, in collaboration with Citi, MasterCard, Sprint and First Data.
According to a recent blog post, Google is releasing the first version of the app to Sprint, so Google Wallet will be available on Sprint Nexus S 4G phones.
With the app, customers can pay with a Citi MasterCard credit card and the Google Prepaid Card, which can be funded with any of credit cards.
Osama Bedier, Vice President of Payments wrote in a recent blog post that “Visa, Discover and American Express have made available their NFC specifications that could enable their cards to be added to future versions of Google Wallet.
Source: Official Google Blog
Report Says ISIS to Invest $100M to Challenge Google Wallet
With summer days dwindling, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) has less than two weeks to make good on its pledge to launch its Google Wallet mobile payment service.
Google Wallet is a mobile application service that will let owners of Sprint’s Samsung Nexus S 4G smartphones use their phone as a wallet at some 20 retailers and restaurants.
Bloomberg said the carrier group, which unveiled its own tap-and-pay effort in July, plans to invest $100 million to build out its mobile payment plans to challenge Wallet.
Read more, via eWeek.com.
Mobile Banking Markets and Opportunities Report Announced by Research and Markets
Research and Markets has announced the release of a new report, entitled “M-Banking Markets and Opportunities.”
Mobile banking refers to a client-server system that is specifically designed for mobile devices, allowing banking customers to use handheld devices to access their accounts, pay bills, authorize fund transfers, or perform other activities. Like many other m-commerce services, mobile banking services can be challenging and no single company has all the expertise required to develop and deliver compelling services on its own. This report evaluates the mobile banking ecosystem and mobile banking solutions including mobile payments, provides a SWOT analysis for Visa and competitors, analyzes solutions for Visa’s weak points, discusses mobile banking implementation, and evaluates the market, applications, and methods. [Read more…]
Sprint Selects BilltoMobile to Provide Direct to Mobile Billing for Sprint Customers
BilltoMobile has announced a Direct Mobile Billing Gateway Servce Provider agreement with Sprint, which will allow Sprint customers to charge online purchases directly to their Sprint bill. Once implementation is complete in the coming months, merchants and payment resellers using BilltoMobile’s mobile payment service will be able to offer this payment option to Sprint customers.
“On the heels of our Sprint Mobile Wallet launch, we are pleased to work with BilltoMobile to present an additional payment option that will allow Sprint subscribers to conveniently and safely complete purchases on the Web,” said Kevin McGinnis, vice president of Sprint Product Platforms. “Our agreement with BilltoMobile represents another step forward in our efforts to provide our customers with the most innovative services and applications on the market.”
“Partnering with Sprint represents a major milestone for BilltoMobile, as it expands our reach to a vast majority of wireless subscribers in the U.S.,” said Denise Archer, vice president of carrier partnerships, BilltoMobile. “BilltoMobile is the only mobile payments gateway that can offer online digital goods and services merchants the technology infrastructure and broad consumer reach necessary to provide customers with a viable mobile payment option.”
The agreement with Sprint extends BilltoMobile’s overall reach to more than 240 million wireless subscribers in the U.S. across multiple carriers. These customers will now have instant access to BilltoMobile’s exclusive Direct Mobile Billing platform, which offers a simple, secure payment option that requires no registration, no set up, no application or downloads and no association with other financial instruments such as credit or bank cards. Purchases are completed in seconds using a two-step authentication process, and customers don’t have to expose any sensitive account information while using the service.
Through BilltoMobile, merchants and authorized resellers receive significantly lower carrier-inclusive processing fees, and a more robust approach to mobile payment processing. BilltoMobile’s Direct Mobile Billing platform involves real-time direct connections with the carrier’s billing system, advanced carrier-direct authentication systems and a direct real-time connection between the BilltoMobile service and the carrier’s customer care systems.
Source: MarketWire
BilltoMobile Adds Sprint, Extends Reach to 240 Million U.S. Customers
A year ago, few people in the U.S. had ever heard of BilltoMobile, a direct carrier billing company with roots in Korea. But the San Jose, Calif. company is fast emerging as a leader in the mobile payments space with direct billing arrangements with Verizon and AT&T and Friday, it’s adding Sprint to the list.
The latest announcement extends BilltoMobile’s reach to about 240 million customers in the U.S., who will be able to make purchases and charge them directly to their cell phone bill. BilltoMobile is actively looking at locking up more carriers in North America and is expanding the number of merchants it deals with directly.
via GigaOm.

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