Tag: mobile wallet

Apple Pay is headed to Canada and mobile wallets are bracing themselves

| August 12, 2015

New mobile payments apps are preparing for the launch of the iPhone’s own option.

As Apple Pay is now on its way to Canadian consumers, the UGO mobile wallet is getting itself ready to deal with a market that will have a much larger amount of stiff competition to face.

The mobile wallet was created by UGO Mobile Solutions LP, with the backing of two Canadian banks.

That mobile wallet was first launched in December, and has managed to accumulate 50,000 users since that time, but it is now facing a considerable threat as Apple Pay heads out of the United States and into some additional countries around the world. Users of UGO are able to complete mobile payments transactions through the credit cards that have been issued by either Toronto Dominion Bank or President’s Choice Financial. This allows users to pay for purchases by tapping their NFC enabled smartphones against wireless terminals installed at retail checkout counters. That app also supports the loyalty cards of those retailers.

Now, UGO and other mobile wallets are getting ready to have to contend with Apple Pay, a very large entry.

Mobile Wallets Canada - Apple PayUGO isn’t alone in facing the Apple mobile payments threat as it enters the Canadian space. Other local players such as Suretap – a mobile wallet created by Rogers Communications Inc, one of the largest wireless carriers in the country – is also finding itself preparing for the change in the competition.

Apple has already sent its mobile payments service into the United Kingdom and is going to take that service into a number of other countries, including Canada, before the end of the year. While many customers are interested in seeing their iPhone 6’s and 6 Plus’s in action at the checkout counter, it has yet to be known exactly how much interest there is in this market space among Canadians.

UGO is geared up to sign up as many active users as it can before the arrival of Apple Pay. Alec Morley, its chief executive officer, explained that the company is currently on track to serve 100,000 unique users by the end of the year, who will be using over 250,000 cards to pay for their purchases through this service.

Canadian banks rush ahead with mobile payments, leaving consumers behind

| July 20, 2015

Despite the fact that people residing in Canada are slow to accept the tech, banks are still diving in.

In Canada, the major banks are working hard to implement the technology that is required to allow consumers to be able to adopt mobile payments, but at the same time, less than a quarter of the adults in the country can actually use it.

A recent whitepaper has stated that the largest six banks in the country are pouring their efforts into a small market.

The banks are highly enthusiastic about creating mobile payments apps and services that will allow people to use their smartphones instead of debit and credit cards when they make a purchase in a store. That said, the whitepaper pointed out that only under 25 percent of consumers in Canada actually have all of the requirements that are needed to actually use that technology.

This implies that Canadian banks are moving ahead with mobile payments much more quickly than consumers can actually keep up.

Canada Mobile PaymentsFinancial institutions in the country consider mobile wallets that will be used for smaller purchases – particularly when it comes to those developed through the use of NFC technology – to be a key component of their development over coming years. They believe that this will be integral to being able to satisfy what they think is a powerful consumer demand. They also feel that it is vital to take on a technologically-forward position, said the whitepaper, which was created in conjunction with the big six banks in Canada.

Some of the large banks view the creation of their own mobile wallet app as a vital component in defending themselves against the intrusion of technology giants such as Google and Apple, which are already moving into this space as financial players. They are hoping to be able to establish themselves as the natural choice for consumers, early on, before the technology giants have the opportunity to sink their claws into this marketplace and draw consumers away from the banks.

So far, services such Google Wallet and Apple Pay have been launching in a slowly growing number of countries, with the iOS version being seen as the primary threat. Apple’s mobile payments platform has already launched in the United States and it has just stepped into the United Kingdom. Many feel that it will make its way into Canada before the end of the year.