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Using a phone or watch to pay at a terminal is not new.
iPhones and Android devices have both been able to do it for a long time.
So why is the U.S. still lagging behind with mobile payments?
Apple
In other parts of the world, such as China,nearly 90%of people use mobile payments.
That’s more than double the U.S., but adoption is not the only problem.
The infrastructure for mobile payments in the U.S. is just not there yet.
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Mobile Payments in the U.S.
How did we get here?
It was launched in 2014 along with the iPhone 6.
Google wasn’t far behind Apple, launching Android Pay (now Google Wallet) in 2015.
Apple
However, Google isn’t the only player in the Android world.
Samsung launched its own mobile payment service, Samsung Pay, one month before Google did.
If smartphones weren’t enough, the Apple Watch has had Apple Pay since day one.
You’d think that.
Related:Google Wallet vs. Google Pay: What’s the Difference?
Credit Card Society
Clearly, the problem is not a lack of devices with mobile payments apps.
As ofFebruary 2021, over 85% of Americans own smartphones.
However, there are a few uniquely American things that have caused the slow adoption of mobile payments.
The biggest contributing factor is how people pay for things in the U.S.
In many other countries, cash is the primary method for making purchases.
Meanwhile,Americans love using credit cardsand debit cards.
Mobile payments have been more rapidly adopted in those cash-dominated countries because it’s a major improvement.
However, it’s not as dramatic of an upgrade over a credit card.
There’s less incentive to switch to mobile payments when the current method is already pretty easy.
Let’s look at a gas station as an example.
It’s not as big of a deal if you were already doing that.
The other part of the equation is having easy access for using mobile payments.
That’s annoying for those of us trying to use mobile payments more often.
We can use gas stations as another example.
Restaurants are another major pain point.
The majority of sit-down restaurants in the U.S. still operate on an archaic system.
You’re not even present when your card is being scanned.
At least that’s the fear.
One attempted solution to this situation has been QR codes on the checks.
It’s sort of a hacky workaround, but it’s nice when it works.
The problem is it doesn’t always work, and what if you don’t have good reception?
Unfortunately, it’s a bit of a “chicken or the egg” problem.
And businesses aren’t super incentivized to update their systems for mobile payments because not many people use it.
Mobile payment usage in the U.S. is increasing, it’s just at a much slower pace.
The pandemic has played a big part in converting more Americans and businesses to mobile payments.
In 2020, over 90 million smartphone users in the U.S. made at least one mobile payment purchase.
That number is estimated to reach125 million by 2025.
It’s still not great in 2022, but the future is looking okay.
