Several interesting dynamics are shaping the mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) ecosystem and setting the market up for significant growth in 2014. As shown in the most recent MPOS Tracker, sponsored by ROAM, key events in January set the stage for what’s to become the rest of the year.
In a recent conversation with Market Platform Dynamics CEO Karen Webster, ROAM CEO Ken Paull explained that the major U.S. mPOS players are positioning themselves for a strong. At the same time, there’s a lot of momentum pushing things forward as new players see opportunities worth seizing (Jump To: 0:45), he pointed out.
“The momentum hasn’t slowed down at all. If anything, I would say it’s picked up,” Paull said. “I think a lot of that’s driven by more and more resellers getting into this business. As the resellers – traditional resellers, new alternative payment companies and others – start to look at this market, they realize it’s not just a low-end market. There’s actually a huge market up above that.”
Paull also reflected on the international expansion of mPOS (Jump To: 3:20), noting the challenges that exist in the market today. He cited the prevalence of EMV smart cards worldwide as a challenge for mPOS adoption outside of the U.S.
“The challenge isn’t just in EMV itself. The challenge is two-fold, I think. One is that every country and every acquirer within each country has implemented EMV a little differently. They have some different schemes and different ways of adopting it in each country, so that really complicates the matrix of the solution. And there’s the cost challenge, where the technology – the devices themselves – and the technology supporting it is more costly.”
By and large, it is more costly to implement mPOS outside of the United States, Paull said, foreseeing a similar U.S. impact as the country moves toward an EMV-based card and payment system in the wake of the retail data breaches.
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To hear what Paull has to say about mPOS, payments security and the growth in mobile device usage as it relates to commerce, listen to the full podcast below.
