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Mobile payments are not yet taking off in the United Kingdom but there are signs of potential, according to a new Cardbeat report from Auriemma Consulting Group LLC.
So far, "it's not really being pushed and no one has really come out and said 'we're marketing this'," Megan Bramlette, Auriemma managing associate, tells CardLine Global. The reason, she says, is because a solid commercial model has not been determined by the various players in the market, including mobile phone operators, card issuers and processors. "It's a business issue, not a consumer-adoption or technology issue," she says. Those players still need to decide how to divide up the fees for a mobile payment service. But that could change if interest peaked. "If consumers were going bonkers about this then you can be sure the business model would shake out faster," says Bramlette. There is a glimmer of hope, according to Cardbeat, which shows that 12% of 511 consumers surveyed would change mobile carriers in order to take advantage of mobile payment technology and 15% would obtain a new handset that would enable them to make mobile payments. Bramlette says this is a substantial number since it is such a difficult undertaking to change mobile carriers and phones, which consumers usually only do when they have a customer service issue.
