[E184]Apple, Google and Samsung launch features to help spark……

Apple, Google and Samsung launch features to help spark the mobile pay revolution

The big shift to mobile payments seems to have been just around the corner[在拐角处；即将来临] for years now, but Google, Apple and Samsung are bringing improvements in the next few months that could finally give a boost to smartphones at the checkout register. All three have smarter payment systems about to come out, and the major credit card companies Visa, MasterCard and American Express have added needed technical standards and incentives[激励；奖励；诱因] for retailers. And all the players finally seem to realize they need to give regular consumers a better reason to pull out a phone instead of a credit card at checkout.

Apple Pay is fast and secure and brilliantly designed. But it has a tough slog ahead[前行艰难].

Yahoo Tech’s David Pogue

If it finally happens, a major shift to mobile would help cut down on the widespread incidents of card theft from retailers that have become all too common. Mobile transactions don’t expose credit card numbers, leaving nothing useful behind for hackers to steal. Apple, Google and Samsung all seem to have realized that consumers didn’t have enough of an incentive[动机；刺激] to pay by phone if the only benefits were security and a slight speed gain. So all three are pledging[承诺;保证] to add retailer loyalty programs[忠诚计划 ；忠诚度计划 ；忠诚方案] and rewards points to their payment systems.