By the end of 2011 a projected 141 million consumers will have made at least one payment using their smartphone, a 38 percent increase over 2010. Despite this increase, however, mass adoption of NFC is projected to be at least four years away. Consumers are proving reluctant to changing their behavior, perhaps waiting for a dominant NFC system to emerge from the competition between Google, ISIS, Visa, and others. However, this inability of NFC to infiltrate the mobile payment market has provided an opening for mobile app-based payments to develop momentum.
“…consumers are steadily embracing the convenience of apps and smartphone software to conduct their financial business. Long-term growth in mobile-based finance may require phone makers, carriers and financial institutions cooperating closely to create an NFC-based infrastructure. But such growth might also happen if such companies roll out discrete mobile payment services through apps and mobile sites.”