After a long struggle, mobile payments are about to take off

The so-called mobile wallet has been seen as a great opportunity for years now. What is more futuristic and at the same time more easy to think of that using smartphones for payments also, by simply hitting a button? 

Visa and Samsung Electronics have been working together last year to make mobile payments easier. Nowadays, Samsung phones incorporate Visa’s payments software, payWave. This near-field communications (NFC) technology allows users to complete a payment by simpliy tapping their phones against a payment terminal.

Nonetheless, this service has been struggling to take off. Many people are not aware of the new payment systems, others are confused by the many choices, and some see no benefit in the mobile option over using cash or credit cards. In addition to these, and probably of greater importance, merchants are not interested in installing new payment software and hardware unless a large percentage of shoppers are using the service. 

MasterCard and Visa are now hoping to twist the industry by using technology known as “host card emulation”, which allows card data to be stored in the cloud rather than on a chip in the phone.
Thus, there won't be a need for a pre-installed hardware (as for payWave) anymore: the system will just be an app, serving as a NFC-enabled mobile wallet regardless of which telecom provider the phone is used on.

Will this "cloud" revolution eventually boost mobile wallets?
Read more:
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/7b1eb6fa-99a9-11e3-b3a2-00144feab7de.html#axzz38pj3pzLO