Everyday smartphone users grow more confident in the use of mobile payments. In fact, mobile payments is projected to reach $1.3 trillion annually by 2017, according to a recent study by Juniper Research. Many notable companies are taking the necessary steps in making it much more easier for you to spend your hard-earned cash. In the latest case, the wildly popular fast food juggernaut known as McDonald’s, is said be working on a mobile payments system within its mobile application.
The fast food giant is no stranger to this business, as it has been accepting NFC payments for quite some time (I use to buy food through Google Wallet with my Nexus S 4G all the time last year). In the new system the company plans on letting customers purchase meals using their handsets by way of PayPal, as tests in France are currently underway. Apparently, Mickey D’s has been planning this since earlier this year, when the company demonstrated the payments system at a McDonald’s conference in Orlando, Florida.
So far it looks like France will be the first to get this feature once it officially rolls out. Once it arrives, customers will get a separate line to pick up their app-ordered meals. Fast food joints accepting mobile payments through the app is nothing new, as Pizza Hut, Domino’s, and Five Guys to name a few, have done this for a while. McDonald’s is the latest company to join PayPal, alongside Home Depot and others.
[Reuters; via cnet] [Image: bizmac / Flickr]