Apple Pay has been on the decline in the United States, with the company’s mobile payments system not having the kind of adoption rate that’s typical of Cupertino’s mobile OS. At the same time, however, Apple’s been adding companies to its list of Apple Pay partners that will allow customers possessing their credit cards or payment accounts to use Apple Pay in line with purchases from their outlets or companies. Android Pay won’t arrive until the announcement of the Huawei Nexus and the 2015 LG Nexus 5 this October, but it seems as though the new Google mobile payments system, in addition to Google Wallet, is getting adoption before it arrives.Rite Aid officially announced it’s bringing mobile payments to its stores – Apple Pay, Android Pay, and Google Wallet – on Saturday, August 15th.
Increasingly, consumers are actively seeking out and incorporating mobile technology into many facets of their life, including their shopping and purchasing decisions. By acceptin mobile payments, we’re able to offer Rite Aid customers an easy and convenient checkout process, which we know is important to them. Investing in mobile technologies is just one piece of Rite Aid’s evolving digital strategy and we will continue to explore, test and implement innovative technologies that will help us to better serve our valued customers, said Rite Aid Store CEO Ken Martindale.
Rite Aid’s decision to allow mobile payments into all 4,600 of its stores in the US means that Apple Pay won’t be the only system to receive mass adoption. Rite Aid has said nothing about Samsung Pay, Samsung’s own mobile payments system, so Samsung customers will have to wait and see whether or not Rite Aid picks up Samsung Pay like Android and Apple Pay.
Mobile payments are a tech trend that will increase with widespread adoption, and Rite Aid’s decision will help payment technology progress. Currently, few individuals use any form of mobile payments (including Google Wallet), although Apple’s announcement about Apple Pay has increased Google Wallet adoption for Android consumers. Mobile payments take the concern out of having multiple plastic credit or debit cards on the go, allowing consumers to pay with their smartphone (which is usually on their person at all times) while leaving the physical wallet at home.
Apple has revolutionized mobile payments with its iPhone 5s Touch ID setup that has become a staple of Apple smartphones. Google announced native fingerprint support in Android M at its Google I/O Conference earlier this Spring, and intends to roll out both Android Pay and native fingerprint support within Android this October. As to be expected, some Android OEMs such as Sony are preparing smartphones with fingerprint-embedded home buttons to take advantage of the coming Android M update. Chinese manufacturer OnePlus, whose OnePlus 2 received over 2 million invite requests in just a few days after its announcement, abandoned NFC (Near Field Communication) within the OnePlus 2 because few people were using it (the company said in a USA Today interview). OnePlus has said that it’ll implement NFC again as Android Pay is adopted mainstream.
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