Companies like Apple, Samsung, and Google worked hard to build their mobile payments bases this year, and could stand to make more gains as the global mobile payments market grows even further in 2017.
According to a new TrendForce forecast, the worldwide market for mobile payments is expected to grow more than 25 percent through the end of 2017 to reach $780 billion. And, the firm noted, the three aforementioned companies are well-placed to take advantage of that expansion.
“Among the smartphone makers that are also developing their mobile payment businesses this year, Apple and Samsung are two brands that have an advantage over their competitors,” Kelly Hsieh, senior research manager at TrendForce, said. “Since Android has over 50 percent of the mobile OS market share worldwide, Google also has an opportunity to build up an extensive mobile payment ecosystem.”
Hsieh noted Google this year intensified the international expansion of its Android Pay platform, most recently via a December deal with major Japanese e-commerce and Internet company Rakuten. Thanks to the deal, Hsieh said Android pay users can now access Rakuten’s e-money platform Edy, which is accepted in major restaurant and retail chains including McDonald’s, Family Mart, Lawson, and Domino’s Pizza.
TrendForce, however, noted NFC chips are expected to become the mainstream solution in mobile payments – which means Samsung’s NFC-compatible Samsung Pay solution is ahead of the game. Chinese manufacturers like Huawei and Xiaomi have already launched smartphones with NFC technology this year, and in 2017 more than 60 percent of smartphones shipped worldwide are expected to be NFC-compatible, TrendForce predicted.
In terms of mobile payment verification, TrendForce said fingerprint scanning is expected to remain the dominant biometric used, with more than half of smartphones shipped in 2017 incorporating the technology. However, iris scanning is expected to develop in the coming year and be made available on high-end smartphones.
