US Market Lagging Behind

The US has been slow to adopt mobile payment technology. PayPal currently offers a service that lets mobile users send money from their PayPal account to another phone number via text message, but this is a poor man’s version of mobile payment, constraining users to cell phone-to-cell phone payment without access to credit or checking accounts. Nonetheless, a true mobile wallet may soon be on the way. Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, which is designed to ensure secure financial transactions, is being tested in a number of locations and may even hit US commercial markets next year. In Germany, bus commuters used their NFC-equipped phones to buy tickets. And a study in Amsterdam is providing bank customers with an NFC phone to use with local merchants. NFC is not the only other option, though, and you can expect plenty of squabbling before the multiple industries involved decide on a workable standard for widespread deployment.