Cash, credit or BlackBerry?
Retail outlets may start asking Canadians these three words when checking out an item as CIBC and Rogers Communications announced a partnership that will harness the Near Field Communication technology that is a feature in newer BlackBerry’s that would allow your BB to act as your credit card.
Senior vice president of retail and business banking for CIBC David Williamson said, “Some people might not carry a wallet but they’ll always have their smartphone.”
But a research released by Google said that Canadians are not keen on the idea of using their smartphones to make purchases online. After polling about a thousand individuals who have smartphones, only 20 percent said they already purchased an item using their devices and 16 percent said they are going to increase mobile shopping next year.
Mastercard estimates that only 15 percent of Canadian consumers are willing to use a mobile device to pay for their items.
Ian Shelly from KPMG said that this figures are quite low. “The 15 percent number is really just the tech-savvy individuals who have kept up with the mobile payments agenda. But once these sorts of announcements come up I think you’ll see much greater adoption.”
Image Source: intomobile.com
