NEW YORK (MainStreet) — Matt Stormoen, founder of Pure Focus, a Hermosa Beach, Calif., digital marketing agency, is an avid mobile device user. He just doesn't believe mobile payments are worth his time.

"As a digital agency owner and progressive tech user, I think broad adoption of mobile payments has a long way to go," Stormoen says. "I'm an avid Apple user and, while I've had access to Apple Pay since beta testing IOS 8, I still haven't used it once."

Why the indifference? Stormoen says there's just too much involved for consumers and too little reward for the effort. "Personally, I think tech companies need to simplify the process," he says. "Pulling out your phone, selecting the card and then sending payment is cumbersome. My hope was that [near-field communication] would allow simple communication to happen with the phone in your pocket and not requiring multiple steps."

"I think mobile payments will take off when tech companies move the interaction to the actual payment terminal and not the phone," he says.

Stormoen may not entirely approve, then, of an industry study by MasterCard showing consumer approval on mobile payments rising across the globe, with innovation, rewards, loyalty and convenience all rating highly among users.

"Convenience was the most positive aspect of mobile payments," MasterCard says, citing a 94% positive sentiment. "Consumers were most excited to share specific purchases made with mobile devices, particularly how they could utilize them for everyday purchases."

Consumers also like mobile payments reward incentives. MasterCard mentions coupon redemption and loyalty programs among "potential benefits to be integrated" and reinforce consumer loyalty to smartphone payments.

Of course, MasterCard has its own mobile pay product, called MasterPass, so it has skin in the game.

Users say what they really want is a secure digital payments experience, as well as convenience.

"Clients want one thing from mobile banking — a secure system that is intuitive, fast and easy," says Matthew D. Lehman, director of digital banking at KeyBank. "Our clients want banking to be simple and straightforward. If our digital banking processes aren't easy to use, our clients won't take advantage of them."

Lehman has plenty of company from experts and banking customers.

"People want mobile payments to be very easy and very safe, it's as simple as that," says Matt Schulz, senior industry analyst at CreditCards.com. "Most people won't pay with a smartphone if they think a credit card is easier to use. And in this time of frequent data breaches, most people certainly aren't eager to use a payment method that they see as potentially unsecure."

Schulz says recent reports of increased fraud on Apple Pay have to be deeply concerning to Apple.

"I personally use Apple Pay and find it to be really easy to use once the cards are loaded in. Since I often have my phone in my hand anyway when I'm buying something, making a purchase with Apple Pay is often faster than doing so with a physical credit card, since I don't have to reach into my wallet, grab the card and then swipe it."

But Apple Pay was presented to the consumer as a big step forward in the battle against credit card fraud. "If it proves to be something less than that, it'll present some major challenges for Apple," he says.

There's no doubt mobile payments are surging. But as that trend plays out, consumers are still wrestling with basic issues on safety and ease of use.

"Because it is so easy to use, I think there's an excellent chance that Apple Pay and mobile payments in general will keep growing rapidly," Schulz says. "The X factor in all of it, however, is safety. If people don't trust that mobile payments tools are safe and secure, most of them will just stick to good old plastic cards instead."

— Written by Brian O'Connell for MainStreet