We’re at the cusp of entering an age where our mobile phones, which started out as devices used for voice calls, but over the last 5 years have come to replace our digital cameras, music players, and for some people have even become a web browser they spend several hours a day interacting with, will soon become our wallets. No more having to carry identification, loyalty cards, and the credit/debit cards that we use today to pay for most, if not all of our goods. So what’s been holding back the rollout of mobile payments? According to a new survey done by Mobio on 1,085 North Americans, 94% of people would make a mobile payment if they knew what they were about to do is secure. When it comes to what’s the most important aspect of mobile payments, 73% said security, followed by 12.5% for simplicity, and 8.4% for speed. Spot a trend?
When you break it down by age it’s the 35 to 44 year old segment that’s most interested in mobile payments, with 84% saying they’d use their mobile phone to make a purchase versus 77% overall. For the sexes it’s the men who say yes to mobile payments 85% of the time compared with 73% for women. And as for the country, 86% of Canadians give mobile payments a thumbs up versus just 72% of Americans. For the 23% who aren’t interested, 69.4% said they fear security concerns, and 12.4% said it would just be too inconvenient.
The numbers that interest us are the response to the question: “Do you see mobile payments as an additive or replacement for other forms of payment?” The answers show that only 19.5% of people want to replace their current payment methods with their mobile phone versus 80.5% who said they’d still carry plastic, cash and coins.
We all know attitudes change with time however, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see the mobile phone replace the wallet by the end of this decade.