Mobile payments being looked at seriously by the restaurant industry.

“Restaurants of all types are looking seriously at implementing electronic payments, and customers in all restaurant types will increasingly see and use payment technology. Although the restaurant industry has been cautious in adopting electronic payment technology, that is due to change, as explained in a new report from the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research (CHR). The report, “Customer-Facing Payment Technology in the U.S. Restaurant Industry,” by Sheryl E. Kimes and Joel E. Collier, is available from the CHR at no charge. Kimes is a professor at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, and Collier is an associate professor at Mississippi State University.
“The U.S. restaurant industry is now focusing on mobile technology for many purposes, as they see the success that some operators have had,” said Kimes. “Our survey found that almost all restaurant operators were aware of consumer payment technology, and about half of them were seriously thinking about installing this technology in the next year or two. At the moment, though, only about 12 percent of the restaurants in our survey used mobile payment technology.”
What do you think?

Our view at simpleERB is that it is best for the independent operator to wait for the dust to settle.

Venmo will be big in the US with its 8,000 fragmented banks.
The 4 big UK banks will have their own solution.
And who knows what Apple have in store, (the iWatch?) but with 1 billion stored credit card numbers in their iTunes and App Store databases whatever they do will be relevant.