Square has said goodbye to its Wallet app but has not quit the consumer payments market as it simultaneously introduces its new Order app.

Both apps enable payment in locations such as shops and cafes but whereas Wallet let users pay in shops and cafes just by giving their name, Order works differently.

The new app lets users pay via their smartphones and then collect their purchase in a shop and cafe at a specified time. The idea is to minimise queuing time for users.

But Jordan McKee, senior analyst with the Yankee Group, said “we’re afraid it may already have missed the boat.”

Ccompetition to the new app includes the likes of Grubhub Seamless and Eat24, with portfolios of 28,000 and 25,000 restaurant partnerships, respectively, Mckee pointed out.

“While its existing point of sale relationships with merchants will help, starting from ground zero in a rapidly maturing space will be yet another uphill battle for Square,” he said.

Meanwhile the older Wallet app  failed to generate sufficient consumer interest, hence the change of approach.

The developments do not impact Square’s core business which is enabling small businesses to accept payments on smartphones and tablets. This service is available via its Register app.

But the core business also happens to have relatively low margins, hence the move to diversification.

The Wallet app has been removed from Apple’s App store and the Google Play store, as well as from Square’s own website.

Fast food chains are already interested in remote ordering although Square will likely be hunting smaller prey with its service.

The Order app, which is free, is currently only available in New York and San Francisco.

“Square Wallet provided a very magical experience but didn’t have a lot of the utility value,” conceded Ajit Varma, one of the firm’s directors, in a recent interview with Re/code.

According to Jordan McKee, the closure of Wallet was not a surprise. Consumer adoption was “struggling to crest two per cent after nearly three years”.

He likened the Wallet app to “a credit card in a different form factor for use at an extremely limited number of locations”. O2 and Swedbank had closed similar mobile wallets earlier this this year.