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Independent sales organizations should be educating their merchant clients about mobile payments to speed contactless-terminal adoption and prepare merchants for eventual mobile-payment introduction, according to industry observers. The ISO should be prepared for mobile-payments technology when it does come of age, says Nick Holland, senior analyst with Boston-based Aite Group LLC. "It makes a more compelling case to sell contactless POS terminals if you know that in not too many years there will be a demand for not just paying using phones but also for loyalty and couponing embedded in the phone," Holland says. Consumers paying for purchases at the point of sale with their mobile devices may be a reality in the next two to three years, and ISOs should be talking to their merchants now about upgrading their terminals, says Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Princeton Junction, N.J.-based Smart Card Alliance.
