Mobile Wallet Outlook: Merchants and new financial services players flex their mobile payments muscles

In the November edition of Mobile Wallet Outlook, the monthly trends bulletin for subscribers to The Mobile Wallet Report, the NFC World team examines the role US merchants plan to play in mobile payments and how the move to mobile is creating new opportunities for alternative players to define the bank account of the future.

Mobile Wallet Outlook, November 2012

The November edition of Mobile Wallet Outlook, which has just been sent to subscribers, examines three key developments in the nascent mobile wallet arena over the last month:

  • Retailers get serious about mobile wallets. That widespread merchant acceptance is a core requirement of any successful mobile wallet program is a given. Until now, however, many players have seen merchants as minor participants in the move to mobile payments — there to simply act as a delivery point for other people’s wallet strategies. That’s not, however, what merchants increasingly think their role is and US retailers are taking the lead in making it clear that, when it comes to mobile wallets, they have strategies of their own and the resources to make them a reality. Mobile Wallet Outlook analyses the situation and presents four key takeaways, the most important points readers should consider as they plan their mobile wallet strategy.
  • The bank account of the future. The move to mobile is creating an opportunity for new players to provide new kinds of mobile bank account — in the developed world, just as much as in the developing world. Banks are racing to implement mobile banking services but they are facing increasing competition from companies building low cost, full function alternatives on top of existing prepaid card offerings. How will the move to mobile change the definition of what a bank account is? Are banks doing too little in mobile too late? What are the implications for the wider financial services industry and, in particular, for the long term future of the credit card? Mobile Wallet Outlook presents trends analysis, statistics, further reading and three key takeaways.
  • Mobile network operators “keep calm and carry on with NFC.” While debate continues to rage in the US over which technology is best suited to close the “last inch” of a mobile transaction at the point-of-sale, mobile network operators remain confident that SIM-based NFC is a winning formula and that momentum is now building around the world. Will the US prove to be a blueprint for the rest of the world, or is it set to go its own way? Another key takeaway outlines the likely outcome.

Mobile Wallet Outlook is the monthly briefing component of The Mobile Wallet Report, a subscription-based market intelligence service for decision makers working on — or maintaining a watching brief on — the introduction of cutting edge mobile payment, loyalty, offers and identity programmes.

Every month this market briefing identifies and analyses the latest trends and developments in NFC and mobile wallets and explains how they impact the future of the market.

Subscribers also get a series of timely standalone spot reports that look in detail at specific technologies, applications, players and vertical markets, as well as “lessons from the frontline” — case studies that examine in detail what others all over the world have already tried, what they learned and what they would have done differently.

“The Mobile Wallet Report is designed to keep readers continuously up-to-date with the latest thinking on NFC and mobile wallet business models,” says editor-in-chief Sarah Clark. “We talk with innovators, disruptors and early adopters as well as established players around the world to bring subscribers answers to the big questions surrounding the future of the mobile wallet market.”

For a limited time new subscribers will get a complimentary upgrade from an individual subscription to a five user team license. Further information and online ordering details can be found here.

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