According to the latest industry estimates, mobile payment transactions are projected to reach $1.3 trillion by 2017. Playing a huge role in this development will be mobile POS systems that involve today’s top tablets and smartphones.
As of early 2013, smartphones have reached fifty percent market penetration with eighty percent expected well before the close of this decade. As a result of rapid smartphone adoption, consumers are getting comfortable with mobile payments and so are business owners and entrepreneurs.
“In 2007, the debut of iPhone moved a lot of consumers into the emerging smartphone space,” says IGC Co. analyst Brian Aliese. “Even the consumers who stayed away from the early iPhones were at least aware of what smartphones were and how popular they were becoming.”
Although Android has since made a huge splash in mobile payments, Aliese says the iPhone primarily made it possible for today’s leading mobile payments providers to create their successful mobile credit card readers and platforms.
Artist Nathan Kent of Branson, Missouri said the iPhone made it possible for him to quit his job and sell paintings full time two years ago. Using PayAnywhere – a leading mobile payments platform for iOS and most Android devices – Kent started selling a boatload of his work at arts and crafts shows, county fairs, and conventions all over the country.
“iOS and Android-based POS terminals are the future of retail,” Aliese says. “The smartphone boom was the catalyst for the mobile payments boom. And businesses, entrepreneurs, and artists like Nathan stand to benefit today in ways never before possible.”
