Apple is hoping that Apple Pay, a tap-to-pay service integrated into the iPhone 6 and Apple Watch, will help it dominate the $79.2 billion-a-year digital payments market. But can Apple succeed where so many have failed before, and truly replace our wallets with our phones?

With 2 million users, a deal with Starbucks, and $6 billion worth of transactions, Square is turning smartphones into checkouts, digitising loyalty schemes and reshaping how consumers spend – without using NFC technology.

Smartphones have transcended their status as luxury possessions – they're practically considered a necessity. So it’s probably not surprising that mobile shopping is on the up – in the UK, it's set to rise by 77% in 2015. And thanks to Barclays Pingit, now you can even pay for stuff via Twitter.

Shanghai has signed a historic agreement with media conglomerate Tencent, to turn the Chinese megapolis into a tech-enabled smart city. But within the futuristic plans is a familiar presence; the entire operation will run on China’s most popular social network, WeChat.