2013 will be remembered as a year of poor adoption and unmet expectations for mobile payments in the U.S., according to Joe Frisz, president and founder of Paytroniks, a boutique consultancy dedicated to evaluating emerging technologies in the payments industry. Frisz's comments came during a recent event launching the Plano, Texas-based company's new website.

He cited several factors to back up his assertions:

• Google Wallet being pushed back to the drawing board by the search engine giant;
• The Isis joint venture not gaining significant traction in its pilot stage; and
• Resistance by merchants to upgrading their POS systems with mobile infrastructure because of new authentication mandates by Visa, MasterCard and American Express, commonly referred to as EMV.

However, Frisz expects to see increased traction in 2014 as the industry begins to consolidate and some mobile payments technologies start to permanently lose favor in the market.

"Mobile payments in the United States, more specifically NFC, will fail to generate significant traction for the remainder of 2013," he said, according to a news release, "but this is not necessarily because the consumers do not want or understand such solutions. This really has to do with poor adoption by merchants due to inferior value propositions and ineffective strategic positioning by solution providers, resulting in the virtual demise of Google Wallet and what appears to be less than formidable engagement of Isis pilots in Salt Lake City and Austin [Texas].

"Exceptions to mobile payment adoption have been the near-ubiquity of mobile card readers such as Square, and to a lesser extent, competing solutions by Ingenico and Intuit. These services are now familiar to merchants and customers alike, but it remains to be seen how these companies will attract larger-sized merchants, and more importantly, how profitable it will be to retain their current merchants in the long run. The merchant base that these companies currently service tends to be poached by other more established acquirers in the industry through the offering of better pricing and customer service."

Frisz added that even within mobile acquiring solutions, other providers appear to be struggling. For example, he said, a quick search of LevelUp merchants in the Dallas area revealed only 11 affiliated merchants in a 30-mile radius. The numbers look better in New York City, he added, "but we are talking about hundreds of affiliated merchants as opposed to thousands in a highly concentrated area."

Looking to 2014, he expects some mobile payments technologies to begin being perceived as antiquated by the industry and the market. "You can also expect various mobile payments providers to close up shop or merge as there are currently too many players vying for the same space," he said.

"Focusing on mobile acquiring solutions alone, there are currently over 75 providers in the United States. It reminds me of the early days of the World Wide Web when various search engines were competing for the same users. Remember Infoseek, Lycos, HotBot and Excite? These companies either don't exist anymore or have been acquired by other larger players with deeper pockets."

Founded in 2009, Paytroniks' areas of focus are mobile payments, prepaid cards and mPOS (acquiring) solutions, the release said. The company has affiliate offices in Miami, Madrid and Singapore.

Learn more about mobile payments trends and statistics.