Mobile Payments Newest 5 Decisions

So maybe the mobile payments game isn't all over yet. A lot of news recently seems to indicate that a lot of the major card issuers are getting back into the game of mobile payments. That doesn't mean that the road ahead is clear though-- now they're wondering the nitty-gritty of the problems.

1. Visa wants to enable mobile payments and move them to the cloud. They're building on their existing PayWave technology, and are also extending the Visa Ready Program in order to support merchants to enable payment options in the cloud. The cloud offers a new turn in the mobile payments game-- for years people have worried about the balance of the security in the cloud vs. the flexibility and scalability of hosting things in the cloud. It seems like that tide is finally turning in favor of the flexibility and scalability of hosting in the cloud, and Visa is making strong strides in that direction. 
2. Partnerships have also begun to dominate. Visa and MasterCard are realizing that having a partner can help with the scaling needs to get them to the tipping point of adoption. Moreover, they're throwing their weight solely behind Android 4.4 and are firmly in support of their tap and pay technology
3. Partnerships do not have to be "like with like" either. Visa and MasterCard, two of the largest issuers in America have teamed up, sure, but we're also seeing more partnerships across specialties. Samsung, a hardware provider, has recently found a worthy partner in PayPal, whose origin comes from software. Partnerships like these allow both parties to leverage the strengths of the other to produce a stronger overall solution. Although rumors claim that these two are also in talks with Apple, nothing can be confirmed
4. Instant usability is a requirement. Loop Payments recently unveiled a key fob that leverages existing POS terminals to allow consumers to use mobile payments with a consolidated "wallet" of payment methods. The fob only works when connected to a user's iPhone, thereby inherently providing another layer of interconnectivity and potentially security into the process
5. The battle between Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and NFC (Near Field Communications) continues. Although they both have their pros and cons, choosing the wrong one could pen a potential player from adoption. This risk undoubtedly has a lot of potential players sitting on the sidelines to see what ultimately shakes out and what the industry decides to go with. In short, nothing much has changed in the last two years