Mobile Wallets: What Does The Future Hold?

By Bernadette Wilson

Craig Tieken VP of product implementations for TransFirst answers Business Solutions’ questions about the increase in consumer interest in mobile wallets since the announcement of Apple Pay — and the drivers that will move this technology forward. Tieken also suggests educating your merchant clients on the advantages of semi-integrated solutions.  

Q: Do you see increased consumer interest in mobile wallets since the announcement of Apple Pay?

Tieken: In my opinion, the Apple Pay launch bolstered interest for a minority of tech savvy Apple phone holders. I think the initial buzz around Apple Pay will dwindle as quickly as it appeared, then slowly gain traction as three critical triggers occur: 

1. A critical mass of merchants must upgrade their POS to support EMV, NFC (near-field communication), and tokenization.
2. A critical mass of cardholders must upgrade phone handsets to the iPhone 6 or, when available, the Apple Watch with iPhone 5.
3. The other NFC wallets get need to get on board with the tokenization component to arrive at a consistent wallet technology across both Android and iOS (and eventually Windows) as well as all major card brands. Ubiquity of acceptance is what we have come to expect as cardholders in the U.S. 

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