2015: Milestones in Mobile Payments

December 3, 2015 11:01 PM

The mobile wallet is still a niche product, but many companies worldwide made big strides in bringing secure payments to handheld devices. Some of the most groundbreaking changes happened just in the past year.

A sign for the launch of the Apple pay system, from Apple.Inc is seen displayed at the entrance to a McDonald's Corp. restaurant in London, U.K., on Tuesday, July 14, 2015. Apple Inc. is making the U.K. the first market outside the U.S. for its digital-wallet system as the company fights for a place in the electronic-payments industry. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Apple Pay Goes Global

Apple Pay had a slow first year in the U.S., but that didn't stop it from spreading to multiple new markets. It now operates in the U.K., Canada and Australia, with plans for Spain, Singapore, Hong Kong and (reportedly) China in 2016.

An attendee displays Google Inc. Android Pay icon on a mobile device for a photograph during the Google I/O Annual Developers Conference in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Thursday, May 28, 2015. Google unveiled payment services, security upgrades and access to HBO movies and shows for its popular Android software, seeking to push back against growing competition from rivals such as Apple Inc. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

Android Pay, Samsung Pay Come to Market

Following the lead of Apple's branding, Google and Samsung debuted their own separate takes on smartphone-based payments. In Google's case, this meant largely eliminating the troubled Google Wallet brand.

An attendee reaches for a cup of coffee at Starbucks Corp.'s 400,000 square foot Leadership Lab in the George R. Brown Convention Center during the company's Global Leadership Conference in Houston, Texas, U.S., on Thursday, Oct., 4, 2012. Starbucks Corp. Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz said his company plans to add 1,000 stores in the U.S. in the next five years. Photographer: F. Carter Smith/Bloomberg

F. Carter Smith/Bloomberg

Starbucks Hits a Mobile Milestone

A pioneer in mobile payments, Starbucks regularly reports increasing usage of its mobile app for in-store transactions. This year, it passed the milestone of accepting mobile payments for one in five in-store sales.

Serban Simu watches the dollars tick-off as he fills his car at a Berkeley, California Chevron station April 30, 2004. ChevronTexaco Corp., the second-biggest U.S. oil producer, said first-quarter earnings rose 33 percent to the highest since the 2001 merger that formed the company as record gasoline prices doubled refining profit. Photographer: Noah Berger/Bloomberg News.

Noah Berger/Bloomberg News

Pumped Up Payments

Gas stations have an extra two years to add EMV hardware, but they are moving much faster with pump upgrades that support mobile payments. It's a striking shift for an industry that used to claim that using mobile phones at the pump was a fire hazard.

The CurrentC application (app) is displayed on an Apple Inc. iPhone 5s in this arranged photograph in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2014. CurrentC, the retailer-backed mobile-payment system touted as an alternative to Apple Inc.'s platform, was hacked during a test of the technology, resulting in some e-mail addresses being stolen. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

MCX Inches Forward

The Merchant Customer Exchange's mantra may well be that slow-and-steady will win the mobile wallet race. Rather than let the pressure of Apple Pay and other rivals push its CurrentC wallet into production, MCX let its retailer exclusivity agreements expire and kept to small tests in 2015, while lining up new alliances within the banking world.

HCE Gets Big

The Android operating system has proven a fertile ground for new mobile wallet projects based on its support for Host Card Emulation-based contactless payments. RBC, Capital One and others have built their own payment apps using this technology.

Square Shifts Its Strategy

Square's Starbucks processing deal was unprofitable, and its consumer-facing mobile wallet is a relic of the past. But the company is working with Apple to market its new NFC reader, which accepts Apple Pay and EMV-chip payments but not mag-stripe payments.

Visa Inc. credit and debit cards are arranged for a photograph in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2014. Visa Inc. is expected to release earnings data on Jan. 30. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Visa Reunites

The reunification of Visa and Visa Europe, announced this year, gives the U.S.-based Visa access to Visa Europe's market expertise and gives Visa Europe access to its American counterpart's mobile and digital payments resources.

PayPal Inc.'s mobile payment application is launched on an Apple Inc. iPhone in this arranged photograph during a promotional event at Nestle SA's Cafe Nescafe coffee shop in the Harajuku district of Tokyo, Japan, on Monday, Nov. 18, 2013. Japan, where majority of retail purchases are made in cash, is attracting US mobile-payment companies such as Paypal and Square. Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg

Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg

PayPal Peels Off

PayPal's split from eBay, which had owned the payments company since 2002, meant it could seek new partnerships with companies that were not comfortable with its previous ownership. These partnerships are helping transform PayPal into a stronger force in mobile and digital payments.

Mobile device (mobile phone, cellphone, tablet) security concept. Protecting gesture of man and symbol of mobile device with padlock.

Jakub Jirsak

Token Effort

Visa and MasterCard have steadily spread their marketing of tokenization security, which kicked off with Apple Pay. Over the course of 2015, the card networks were busy placing the technology in more products, such as the MasterPass digital wallet.

An employee sets up an Apple Watch for a customer at an Apple Inc. store, in New York, U.S., on Wednesday, June 17, 2015. Apple Inc. is rolling out a "Reserve & Pickup" system which allows customers to choose a Watch online then buy and collect the order in store. Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg

Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg

Apple Watch Debuts

The April launch of the Apple Watch brought Apple Pay to the world of wearables. Companies like Swatch and Kerv are gearing up to launch their own payment jewelry in 2016.

Buy Buttons Blossom

The concept of a "buy button" embedded in social media and retailer apps gained strong momentum this year, with many companies seeking ways to streamline mobile commerce.