Skip to main content

Growth Potential for Mobile Point of Sale Payment Apps

At local retailers everywhere, the counter-top device where you swipe your credit or debit card is likely to become more mobile. Furthermore, mobile payment technologies are cropping up in numerous new application scenarios.

Mobile point of sale (mPoS) growth continues as the technology deepens its reach across vertical industries, merchant tiers and geographies. 451 Research has forecast that the global mPoS installed base will grow from 13.3 million units today to 54.03 million units in 2019.

Diverse factors including enterprise deployments, expansion into new vertical industries and financial inclusion in developing economies will serve to increase the installed base at a 32 percent CAGR during the forecast period.

451 Research defines mPoS as a smartphone, tablet or other consumer-oriented mobile device that functions as a point-of-sale terminal and facilitates payment card transactions through a wired or wireless connection to a card-accepting reader or device.

The 451 Research analysts compiled the data from their study using a bottom-up market-sizing breakdown, aggregating more than 75 individual vendor shipment estimates and including direct vendor input.


"Today, it's simply myopic to look at mPoS as a tool for micro-merchants. In a short time frame, it has broadened its roots across a wide swath of vertical industries and almost unanimously across all merchant tiers," said Jordan McKee, senior analyst at 451 Research.

McKee believes that the mPoS momentum is at least in part linked to its diversity. The growing list of mPoS applications is helping to enable customer engagement in retailers such as Nordstrom, while driving financial services inclusion in countries such as Nigeria.

According to 451 Research, rapid growth will be most evident in emerging economies where mPoS is playing a critical role in building out the electronic payments acceptance network, against a backdrop of rising consumer debit and credit card penetration.

In more mature markets, such as North America, mPoS expansion continues as the technology penetrates the enterprise. 451 Research analysts believe the cadence of large-scale deployments will become consistent over the next five years, with businesses in excess of 1,000 employees integrating mPoS more holistically across their organizations.

Across all company sizes, according to their assessment, there's a clear understanding of the mPoS value. Moreover, 451 Research discovered that 87 percent of IT decision-makers feel that accepting card payments on a mobile device and providing a real-time receipt is important.

Popular posts from this blog

How Applied-AI Impacts the Wearables Market

The wearable technology sector growth was largely a story about the smartwatch: a premium product anchored around a single wrist, sold at a steep price, and adopted primarily by the health-conscious and the tech-savvy. That narrative is now changing in ways that are genuinely interesting to anyone tracking the intersection of Applied-AI, consumer electronics, digital health, and connectivity infrastructure. The latest worldwide market study by ABI Research offers a timely and data-rich window into just how fast that transformation is unfolding. Wearables Market Development Wearable device shipments are projected to grow from 402.96 million in 2026 to 544.08 million by 2031, as vendors broaden access to advanced health, fitness, and connectivity features at more affordable price points. That is not incremental growth; it represents a meaningful expansion of who is wearing smart technology and why. Equally compelling is the revenue picture: the category is expected to generate $44.22 bil...