New Zealand’s first “mobile wallet” app has been shelved.

Semble launched last year, with a smartphone app that was intended to take the place of a number of cards, including credit and debit cards and Wellington’s Snapper transport card. It had planned that the app would eventually replace everything from loyalty cards to library cards and drivers’ licenses.

The project was a joint venture between bank-owned eftpos operator Paymark and telecommunications companies Vodafone, Spark and 2degrees. Some of the banks, such as ANZ and ASB, have launched their own apps.

But it has now announced that it will discontinue the mobile payments service.

Chief executive Rob Ellis said Semble would refocus the business to develop and build new services.

“Mobile payment services haven’t had the speed of uptake and usage we expected due to a variety of reasons. These include low levels of consumer awareness of mobile payments and relatively low volumes of contactless terminals, especially outside the major retail brands, although contactless transactions in general are growing,” he said.

He said while the decision to discontinue the service was disappointing, Semble would continue to operate as a business. Payments were envisaged to be one of many mobile wallet services, and the company was preparing for the next phase of product development and growth.

“We’ve learned a great deal over the past couple of years, technology has evolved and we’re currently planning to extend our capability to include a more flexible, modular and future-proofed technology platform which offers kiwi businesses easy integration into their own and third-party mobile apps to deliver a range of wallet services,” Ellis said. “We’ll share specific developments as they come about.”

As a result of the decision to discontinue mobile payment services, the “Snapper in Semble” service, for Wellington public transport users, will not be available to new customers, although existing customers will be able to keep using the Snapper function on their phones for the foreseeable future.

The app did not work with iPhones, so was limited in the number of customers who could access it.

Android Pay and Apple Pay are rolling out around the world – ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott said smartphone purchases could push out plastic cards in less than a decade.

– Stuff