Bright Future for Obopay and Mobile Wallets?

July 16th, 2008

Today, Juniper Research Group released an analysis of the NFC mobile payments opportunity that made all of us here at Obopay crack a big smile.  The group forecasted that “the gross transaction value of payments made via NFC contactless technology, for relatively low value purchases (such as refreshments, tickets and food), will exceed $75bn globally by 2013.”  Even though this figure may never be completely realized, and even though 2013 is a long way out in the future, it is still reassuring to know that there is, potentially, a big bright 75 billion watt light bulb waiting at the end of the tunnel. 

The Juniper analysis goes on to qualify this assessment, stating that “the industry as a whole will need to convince both consumers and merchants of the merits of yet another payment mechanism on top of cash, cheques, credit and debit cards, and to allay understandable (even if unfounded) fears and scepticism about the security of The Mobile Wallet.”  And this is absolutely true.  The mobile wallet service may be far more convenient and simple and secure than any other payment method out there, but such a transition to mobile finance can only occur if the public initiates it.  Over the next 5 years, with the expansion of wireless networking and mobile personal devices, I think it could definitely happen.

Technorati Tags: Juniper Research, mobile wallet, mobile finance, NFC mobile payments, obopay