This week we saw mobile
Payleven announce the launch of their chip & PIN solution for mobile payment acceptance. If the number of market entrants is any indication, then mobile point of sale (POS) is clearly a growing area, but it is unlikely to take off without chip & PIN: currently
VISA is not preparing to accept mobile payments without chip & pin, so any entrant to the market that can only accept
MasterCard really has their work cut out.
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| Payleven's mobile payment acceptance |
With a crowded space, then all the players are trying to establish their position in the market –
Payleven’s release announcing them as the “first pan-European mobile payments company with Chip & PIN”. But the detail of the release indicates they will only be accepting registrations from 15th October – so not much difference to mPowa?
We’re still interested to see how consumers will respond to mobile POS – in our own trials,
less than 10% were willing to entertain using their card to make a payment through a mobile phone. While Chip & PIN is intended to offer greater security around the payment process, we must consider that the consumer may be even more reluctant to enter their PIN in a mobile device.
For the market to fulfil the potential expected by the mobile payment providers, then the issue may not be one of technology solutions, but of establishing consumer confidence in the technology.
Payleven is certainly not first. My company, www.handpoint.com, has live installations with mobile Chip&PIN. As for your comment on consumers being reluctant to enter their PIN in a mobile device, for clarity they will not enter it on the smartphone itself but rather on a secure pinpad. I don't think this will be an obstacle as these devices have a similar look and feel to the devices customers are used to entering their pin on in stores today.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your reply. We don't believe Payleven is first either - but recognise that there will be a lot of creative positioning as more of these devices come to market.
DeleteAs far as PIN entry, then we understand how the technology works. But it's not us that needs persuading, but the consumer - we're simply reporting what we experienced during field trials.
I think this can be overcome with incresed product awareness and familiarisation - but would suggest its a consideration for companies entering the space.
Props to Payleven. I just want to share that mPowa (www.mpowa.com) is also migrating from swipe reader to chip & pin devices by the end of the year. That should give us enough options to choose from to see which one suits our needs better.
ReplyDelete