Apple, Android, Samsung: Who is winning the mobile pay app race?

by Megan Geuss

Samsung Tomorrow

A recent study from market research group Phoenix Marketing International has found that although more people have reported using Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay have adoption rates on par with where Apple Pay was several months into its launch. This suggests the two competing mobile payment technologies aren't far behind Apple in capturing market share.

Phoenix surveyed 3,004 credit card holders and concluded that an estimated 23 percent of the market had linked a credit card, debit card, or pre-paid card to either Apple Pay, Android Pay, Samsung Pay, or some combination thereof. (The survey reported its results as weighted percentages, however, as the company said it over-sampled millennials and affluent credit card holders. In raw data, 779 respondents, or 26 percent, had linked a card to one of the three mobile payment apps. All other percentages in this report are weighted.) Of those who had linked a card to a Pay app, up to 93 percent made at least one mobile payment purchase in a store, and about 81 percent have made at least one in-app purchase.

The survey also found that roughly 18 percent of card holders had signed up for Apple Pay, 11 percent for Android Pay, and 12 percent for Samsung Pay.
A representative for the research group confirmed to Ars that overlap rates for people with Samsung Pay and Android Pay were high, and 13 percent of the people they surveyed had both an iPhone 6 and an Android phone capable of running Android Pay. On average, users of a “Pay” app had 1.7 such apps installed on one or more phones.

These numbers could end up being good news for the latecomers–that is, as long as Android and Samsung continue to track with Apple's payment product. “The six-month adoption rates of Android Pay and Samsung Pay are roughly on a par with that of Apple Pay over its first six months in market,” Phoenix Marketing wrote in a presentation of its survey results.

Phoenix has measured use and user satisfaction in previous surveys, but in this most recent one it also tried to measure general awareness of the payment apps. “Most credit cardholders (84 percent) have heard of the general concept permitting purchases executed through a smartphone as a replacement for using a plastic payment card,” the market research company wrote. “Samsung Pay, backed by significant marketing dollars, reached an awareness level of 57 percent—a higher figure than the Android Pay awareness figure of 49 percent.”

Interestingly, 67 percent of respondents had heard of Google Wallet, which was the first major mobile payments app on the scene back in 2011. But in 2014, the company scrapped the tap-to-pay function, converted Google Wallet to a peer-to-peer payments app, and decided to rebuild its mobile payments app from the ground up, calling it Android Pay.

The survey also found that Samsung's investment in Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) isn't a significant factor in adoption of the company's Pay app. Samsung bought a startup called LoopPay in early 2015 for its patent on MST technology, which transmits card information to older terminals that only accept magnetic stripe cards by creating a magnetic field similar to that of a mag stripe card as it's swiped. (Apple Pay and Android Pay must exclusively rely on the NFC, or Near-Field Communications, a standard that requires newer terminal equipment at the checkout counter.)

“Despite Samsung Pay’s real-world (MST) acceptance advantage, Samsung Pay users don’t report a subjective acceptance rating that’s substantially different than ratings reported by other app users,” the survey results said. “Samsung Pay users report that they use the NFC payment mode more often than the MST mode.”

These numbers are interesting because all three companies have made significant investments to get their Pay apps off the ground. US banks, too, have been eager to get in on mobile payments as the tap-to-pay function should theoretically, reduce the friction of having to carry and use a credit card, thus prompting users to spend more and generating more fees for banks to collect. But users have struggled to find the benefit in using a Pay app as NFC terminals have tended to break down, or cashiers in stores are unsure how to help customers complete a transaction with the apps.

A recent survey from Auriemma Consulting Group echoed the results of Phoenix Marketing's survey, finding that 25 percent of "eligible users" have tried Apple Pay, Android Pay, or Samsung Pay. A recent Reuters report also added that Apple Pay in particular has struggled with adoption outside the US, where banks are more resistant to sign on to the service, and entrenched competitors, like Alibaba and Tencent in China, have well-recognized mobile payments apps.

The challenge for all three apps, even years out from launch, is finding a way to show customers that they should use a Pay app every day. For now, the advantage doesn't seem big enough to be on the top of every smartphone user's mind.