I was reading an article from the E-Commerce Times titled Groupon: Business is Booming. It can be found here.

It summarizes Groupon’s recent performance and how a quarter of their vouchers were purchased via mobile device. In addition, the report says that app usage by both consumer and retailers have steadily been increasing. An app emphasized during their IPO was Groupon Now, an app that would give real time deals that only lasted for hours at a time. Despite the company’s growth internationally, and the rate of adaptation for smartphones, skeptics believe this app has many hurdles to overcome.

The adaptation of electronic wallets

Because financial transactions completed on mobile devices are a fairly new thing, the average consumer does not feel comfortable doing transactions via mobile devices and therefore

Not all retailers having access to a mobile device capable of processing vouchers

In emerging markets where mobile devices are not as readily available, Groupon is lending retailers iPod touches which are quite costly.

In the future I see this app being very plausible, however given the current mobile device market characteristics do not provide favourable conditions for this sort of app.