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Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/325830
inFOGRaPHiC: sTesHa HO July 2014 BCBusiness 45 been in the market since 2011, but with limited success. A joint venture between AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon called Isis is also competing in the U.S. digital wallet space, along with an off ering from PayPal. All three let consumers store credit card information and make in-person pay- ments using the app, but none have yet achieved the combination of consumer and merchant buy-in needed to change behaviour on a mass scale. In Canada, two new entrants into the digital wallet market are now compet- ing to be the fi rst to achieve widespread adoption. Ugo, by PC Financial and TD, will allow customers to load TD Visa, President's Choice Financial MasterCard and PC Plus cards into the wallet app. The suretap wallet by Rogers launched with a prepaid MasterCard virtual credit card, but is expanding to accept more cards. Each has its own limitations, but there's one big limitation both share: near fi eld communication ( NFC). Tap-to-pay termi- nals, which read payment information based on proximity from cards with embedded NFC chips, are nearly ubiq- uitous in Canada—that's how many of us in B.C. pay for gas, for instance. Some Android and BlackBerry phones have the same chips, and therefore could be used for payment with the existing terminals. Conspicuously absent from the list of compatible devices is Apple's iPhone, still Canada's most popular smartphone. The MasterCard Index uses six crite- ria to evaluate a market's readiness for mobile payments: mobile commerce clusters, environment, infrastructure, consumer readiness, financial services and regulation. Mobile commerce clusters, the measure of successful partnerships MOVIE TICKETS Smartphone ownership is near universal among the 18-34 cohort, while only half of them have a landline Younger British Columbians are much more likely to use their smartphone for product research, online banking and GPS/mapping functions Nearly two-thirds of the 18-34 cohort have purchased something using their smartphone over the past three months. Their parents? Not so much 18-34 AGE GROUPS: 35-54 Smartphone DEVICE USED: Laptop Computer 49% 89% 76% 93% 44% 73% 63% 47% 56% 98% 65% 88% Texting 79% 91% 61% 30% 17% 63% 44% 20% 34% 54% 16% 7% 4% 15% 32% 15% 10% 29% 17% 24% LANDLINE SMARTPHONE IPAD/TABLET DEVICE OWNERSHIP ITEMS FROM A WEBSITE PARKING NOTHING SMARTPHONE ACTIVITIES (AT LEAST WEEKLY) SMARTPHONE PURCHASES DEVICE USED MOST OFTEN, BY PLATFORM Making/taking calls Researching products/services For GPS/to search maps Online banking COFFEE/TEA 31% 58% 81% For more on the Insights West/iamota survey, including how much time we're spending on our smartphones—and how we really feel about using our devices during mealtime or at the movies—go to insightswest.com Our smartphones are the dominant device with which we access just about all social media— the notable exception being LinkedIn 35% 49% 71% 35% 43% 6% 16% 11% 8% 10% 30% 14% 11% 21% 17% 23% Desktop Computer iPad/Tablet 55+ 15% 15% 10% 10% 29% 29% ITEMS FROM A WEBSITE COFFEE/TEA 58% 81% For more on the Insights West/iamota 6% 7% 18% 30% 88% Survey Says... For the second year in a row, mobile agency iamota and market researchers insights West have teamed up to survey British Columbians on their smartphone habits. The study of 1,072 B.C. residents was conducted online between april 3 and april 10 of this year, and while many of the results are not surprising – young people are more likely to have a smartphone and use it for commercial transactions, in addition to calling and texting – they do provide important insights into how the smartphone revolution is playing out here at home. "There's no precedent for any technological device becoming so prevalent so quickly as smartphones have," says steve Mossop, president of insights West. "Think of how long it took to get TVs, telephones or PVRs up to the level they are now. smart- phones did that and more in a half-dozen years." Here are a few of the highlights from the insights West survey: p040-047-MobilePayments_july.indd 45 2014-05-29 3:54 PM