When it comes to short term monetization of smartphone transactions, near field communication fell short.
According to a new whitepaper that was just released by Juniper Research and Amdocs, which has revealed the leading mobile payments strategies and it discovered that NFC technology is currently nowhere near the lead.
The whitepaper provided considerable insight into the techniques that are currently leading the way.
The name of the whitepaper was “Mobile Payments in the App Store Economy: Winning Strategies for Telcos.” It focused a great deal on the relevance of telcos and the assets that they can leverage in order to maintain that relevance in an economy that is increasingly focused on apps. It looked into payment transactions through everything from carrier billing to NFC technology.
What it found was that NFC technology is not performing nearly as well as carrier billing.
According to the director of mobile payments at Amdoc, Oded Israeli, “With the emergence of the app-centric environment, the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) have seen their traditional role as the core content gatekeepers eroded.” At the same time, this does not mean that NFC technology has become a front runner. There are several different players that have remained within the marketplace and carrier billing has continued to be a leader in this sphere.
The key for telcos, said the report, is to make sure that this relevance continues. “From being the primary source of digital content, MNO storefronts and portals now account for only an estimated 6-7% of all app downloads, according to Juniper Research,” said Israeli. He went on to point out that as consumers and operators, alike, continue to abandon this model, it is up to those operators to find a new way toward commerce and to monetize content.
Among these initiatives includes NFC technology, tough this has yet to take off in most marketplaces. It faces a number of barriers, including merchant acceptance, the implementation of devices that are compatible with near field communication technology, the availability of terminals, and the education of consumers. Equally, the single tap convenience does present an appealing feature to consumers, who are increasingly purchasing devices that are enabled with this tech.
