Mastercard, Wirecard Step Up Wearable Mobile Payments Partnership

There was a time once when wearable tech was thought to be the future of technology. Some believed that the wearable device would ultimately replace the smartphone. Given how things look these days, that notion almost seems quaint, but wearable tech’s days aren’t done yet. A currently-existing partnership between Wirecard and Mastercard is poised to expand, and with it, drive new operations in mobile payments made via wearable devices.

As a result of the expansion, Wirecard is being immediately brought to Germany by way of Garmin Pay, the system geared to work with Garmin devices. Those who own a digital Mastercard from boon have already had something like this ability, being able to make smartwatch-based payments in Germany and six other countries in Europe besides. The fastest-growing mobile payments solution in Europe, boon actually represents the first mobile payments solution to not need a bank to operate.

The connection between boon, Mastercard and Wirecard, meanwhile, is surprisingly complex. Wirecard’s executive vice president, Georg Von Waldenfels, noted that payment processes at the point of sale were likely to be increasingly digital over the next 10 years or so, to the point where boon users would actually be able to use digital boon Mastercards with most any wireless device.

Plus, Wirecard is actively eager to make this future happen a lot sooner, adding its tools to as many different devices as possible. Recent deals with Mercateo, Moonrise and others have helped drive this ambition forward.

The problem with the notion of wearable mobile payments isn’t the mobile payments, but rather, the wearables. Wearable tech looked like it would be a big deal three or four years ago, but ever since, it’s been falling off. Only a handful of brands are in play right now, and most people don’t seem super interested in getting in on the action. Why would they, when smartphones are reasonably easy to carry and do so much more? The smartwatch was an excellent idea, but considering how often it became little more than a glorified—and underpowered—display mechanism for a smartphone, why bother?

Wearable mobile payments isn’t a bad idea on the surface, but considering how well smartphone mobile payments are doing, most may not see the reason to add a new piece of technology that doesn’t do all that much.