Recent surveys into the types of handsets used by South Africa have yielded surprising results. Upwards off 20% of all cellphone users choose to utilise a smartphone as their preferred device. This adoption bodes well for the future of mobile payments. With the flurry of NFC enabled Android and Nokia phones combined with an increasing number of plug-in solutions for non-NFC devices, it appears that it’s only a matter of time before the convergence of payments using the smartphone becomes reality in South Africa.
Steep rise by 2014
It is predicted that by the year 2014, the mobile environment will be dominated by smartphones. This is one of the many bold predictions by technology analyst Nick Jones, who spoke at the Gartner Symposium on Innovation held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. Jones also predicts that smartphone penetration in South Africa is likely to reach 80% by 2014.
Joined up thinking
Integrating platforms and apps, along with personal email, mobile data and mobile payments creates the opportunity for the marketer to develop new ways of communicating with the customer, giving them a truly joined-up mobile experience. Furthermore it’s this adoption that will drive both retail and transit operators to sit up and take note of the new wave of payment acquisition. This is all made possible through the pervasive use of smart phones in everyday life.
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