The idea of being able to pay for goods and services with our mobile phones rather than having to lug around wallets and purses filled with cash and plastic that could potentially be stolen, seems like the greatest thing to hit the tech world. But as it turns out, some of that hype has now died down and people are still sticking to their plastic cards when it comes time to pay for things in-store.
SmartMetric recently conducted research together with Gallup Research and found that mobile wallets are actually not gaining the mass-market usage over plastic-form credit and debit cards that were originally anticipated.
According to the research findings, only 13 percent of mobile phones actually have a digital wallet installed on the device compared to 87 percent that don't have any type of digital wallet installed. Of those that do - almost all of them said they have not used the apps to make a purchase at a retailer in the last month.
Certainly it is way easier to walk around with our mobile device which we’re already carrying anyways as our payment method - but users are more concerned about hacking and security issues and also fear digital payment formats might not accepted everywhere yet.
The fear over security issues and hacking is the greatest hindering in the market according to SmartMetric President and CEO Chay Hendrick.
"When it comes to dealing with their money consumers are very hesitant to use something that is inherently on trustworthy as a mobile phone," Hendrick said.
One way to increase security on mobile devices is with the use of biometric technology. Using an identifying characteristic like a users fingerprint and adding sensors to payment terminals can be a safer way validate a user’s identity and help get more people excited about mobile payments.
Check out the video below to see how SmartMetric’s biometric payment cards work to protect users.
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