Study shows iPhone owners open to mobile payments
A British study by research and consulting firm YouGov reveals that almost half of iPhone owners are open to making mobile payments. As noted by GigaOM, the study says 46% of iPhone owners in the UK would be willing to pay bills using their iPhone, 62% would transfer funds from one account to another, 69% would check account balances and 45% would feel comfortable making payments to other people. Those numbers bode well for companies like iZettle and Square, who just released its Square Card Case app today.
Despite this, only 31% of those polled reported that they would feel comfortable making contactless payments through near field communication (NFC) technology. That could be due to the fact that people seem to have a distrust for the technology, assuming that simply walking past a NFC reader will lead to your bank accounts being drained by some malevolent hacker.
As could be expected, the study also showed that iPhone owners aren't the only ones open to mobile payments. Android and Blackberry owners showed similar interest, though in less numbers when compared to iPhone users. Age also played a factor; younger respondents reported a greater likelihood to use mobile payment technology.
