Increased consumer interest in NFC mobile payments related to Apple's recent launch of its Apple Pay mobile payment service appears to be having benefits for other services as well, reports Ars Technica. A major beneficiary of this new consumer awareness of mobile transactions is Google Wallet, which reportedly has seen a marked increase in usage over the past few months.
Apple launched its mobile payment service in October with the support of major retailers and credit card companies. The service logged over 1 million card activations in the first three days of usage with overall positive reviews.
The Apple Pay launch was not without controversy with both CVS and Rite Aid suspending their mobile payments shortly after the service made its official debut, moves that affected not only Apple Pay but all NFC-based payment services including Google Wallet.
The two pharmacy chains, along with a number of other major retailers, are developing a competing service, CurrentC, which as currently implemented uses QR codes and an app to process transactions. The shutting down of NFC at these retailers has even resulted in an alliance between Android and iOS users on Reddit to boycott retailers involved in the CurrentC effort.
Article Link: Google Wallet Sees Surge in Usage Alongside Apple Pay Launch
Pay just because they kept their NFC operations going despite the CurrentC cabal requirement to shut it down. I'd encourage anyone that can go to Meijer and use NFC of any kind in the coming days to do so - keeping NFC relevant/important is probably helpful in this situation.
