Amazon Calls It Quits On Mobile Payments

Amazon has announced it is pulling its mobile payments app, Amazon Wallet, just six months after its launch.

In the face of high competition in what is becoming an increasingly crowded market, the online retail giant has decided to end the service to instead focus on other options.

Amazon Wallet, which was only ever officially launched in Beta, was quietly launched in July for iOS and Android devices, as well as coming pre-loaded on to the company’s ill-fated Fire smartphone.

It allowed users to store gift cards and loyalty cards on their mobile device with the details linked to their existing Amazon account, was made available to download for iOS and Android devices today

Shut down

The company began informing users that it would be pulling the service via email last night, meaning it will be removed from Google Play and the Amazon Appstore.

“We have learned a great deal from the introduction of the Wallet and will look for ways to apply these lessons in the future as we continue to innovate on behalf of our customers,” Amazon spokesman Tom Cook said in a statement.

However, the company did not mention whether or when Amazon Wallet would return. Users will still be able to use any gift, loyalty or membership cards store on the app, but wallet balances will no longer be updated after Wednesday, meaning users will have to track their own balances.

Amazon Wallet was the company’s main move to try and gain a foothold in the increasingly lucrative mobile payments market. Both Apple and Google also have payments services on the market, with Apple Pay set to hit the UK later this year.

A recent Deloitte report predicted that in-store mobile payments will increase by more than 1,000 percent worldwide this year, and British consumers also appear to be ready to embrace mobile payments, with many leading retailers also keen to implement the technology into their stores.

A survey conducted for Oxygen8 also found that over half (47 percent) of mobile users in the UK would like to use their mobile phone more to pay for goods and services.

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