To celebrate our 10 year anniversary, we thought it would be interesting to take a look back at some of the research data we collected over the years. How did our insights stack up compared to what actually happened?  Be sure to keep an eye on our social media pages (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter) for more from “Lab42’s 10 Year Data Retrospective”.

It seems like mobile payments have been around forever. But it wasn’t until Apple launched Apple Pay back in October of 2014 that the trend started really taking off. At that time, we found that only 38% had ever used their mobile phone to make a purchase in a store. Now, according to Statista, 40% of US users have accessed Apple Pay to pay at a checkout in the past 30 months, and that is before taking into account other mobile payment providers.

It’s also interesting how people saw mobile payments as they first emerged. Nearly 1 out of 3 people felt that mobile payments were a fad. Apple’s introduction of Apple Pay definitely had a major impact, as Apple Pay was the most popular mobile payment app as of 2019. Some things don’t change, however. Our data from 2014 showed that 63% of US smartphone users are still reluctant to try out mobile payments due to security concerns, and data from May 2019 still showed a similar number at 65%.