What’s Wrong With Mobile Payments? Ask A Librarian
A librarian is required by dint of his or her profession to know a lot of things.
Where to find books, where to find information about certain things, basic principles of how the library runs and so on are all part of a librarian’s lot. Knowing a lot about mobile payments, meanwhile, isn’t generally one of these areas of expertise.
For one librarian, that’s not the case, and this librarian may have found one of the biggest problems about the mobile payments landscape as we know it.
There are more than enough offerings out there, and 71 year old librarian Sue Hugus may have a handle on what’s holding the market back.
Sending in some email to Re/Code following an article on the CurrentC payment system, Hugus offered a few critical points, starting with one of the biggest summary bombshells around: “Being forced to choose all of these different payment systems for each business I might use is not something I want to do.”
That’s a huge point; we discovered not so long ago that most people will only use a comparative handful of apps before resorting to a card for payment instead, so being the app that’s usable in the widest number of places helps ensure that that’s one of the few apps used. Having a loyalty program or the like is likewise helpful, as it provides an incentive to turn to an app in a field full of same.
Hugus didn’t stop there, however, noting that there were problems with bandwidth use, memory taxing machines, and security. We’ve all heard anecdotally for some time that security was a big priority when it comes to mobile payments, and Hugus’ remarks—citing Target and Home Depot by name as examples—personalize it and drive the point home.
Hugus also had a problem with companies forcing her hand; if she was ever forced to use only Chase products, Hugus revealed, she would stop using same altogether.
Much of the problem here relates to the sheer number of apps and app alternatives on the market.
There’s a lot going on in the field, and an ever-increasing number of platforms all vying for a cut. There are universal apps like Samsung Pay and Apple Pay, and store-specific apps like Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks and a host of others’ apps. Eventually, some of these apps will fall by the wayside, victims of too many competitors going after the same size pie.
That will solve many of the problems Hugus notes. Others, like the security issue, are constantly being addressed and will have to be constantly addressed in the future.
Today’s security issues likely won’t be tomorrow’s, and everything that a mobile payment company can do to protect itself and its users can be undone by a sufficiently determined hacker.
The market is in a constant state of change, bringing with it fixes for many problems, including those caused by too many competitors going after too little market. Sue Hugus summed up the state of the market nicely, and many of her issues may well be addressed before too much longer.