Fall 2012 Mobile Payments Conference – Dates To Be Announced Soon, New York City, NY

Thank you to everyone who made the Spring 2012 Mobile Payments Conference possible in San Jose, CA!

Mobile Commerce is the New Buzz

This year, the big question many of us have about mobile payments in the U.S. market is what PayPal is going to do in the retail payments space, and what impact PayPal could have on the commerce ecosystem.

Up to this point, the mobile payments value proposition for retailers, in particular, has been unclear. Some would argue the benefits for end users likewise has been hard to explain. Might PayPal be the first to provide a cogent answer for retailers?

In particular, the foundational question for retailers has been “what’s in it for me?” The classic answer has been “lower transaction fees.” But so far, that has generally not proven to be the case. Square has provided clear new value, but not so much in the area of transaction fees, per se, but in enabling credit card and debit card payments in entirely new venues.

In essence, you might argue that Square has disrupted the retailer point of sale terminal business, not the “payments” business.

Similarly, the question late in 2011 was whether Google would provide a clear answer to the question of value for end users.

Those are big questions, and related directly to the potential shift of revenue within commerce ecosystems. So those, and related questions, will be addressed at the meeting.

Come to the Mobile Payments Conference on March 8 and 9, 2012, at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, Calif., and hosted by Mobile Marketing and Technology.