Weirdly, I've only really noticed this in the US. Back in Australia where we've been using chips for about a decade, I rarely remember it taking more than a couple of seconds, certainly not 10.
We also have contactless payment on most of our credit cards (as in built into the card, not Android/Apple Pay) and support for it on ~90% of terminals as well though so it's not much used anymore.
Likewise in New zealand. I've always heard the argument that the US is bigger so it's harder to change (for everything - POS, the metric system, any kind of regulation etc).
Even after a decade in the US it amuses me that NASA can run a fleet of vehicles on Mars, that the country produced places like silicon valley, and that American ideology is one of entrepreneurship/innovation but as a country we struggle with changes the rest of the world has decided are worth the effort.
It makes me wonder what the US would be like if we weren't still wasting huge sums of money on healthcare and credit card fraud etc!
Of course some may say that the US is what it is because of these things...
Well, it shouldn't amaze you. The telephone was literally invented in Canada, and we have the worst telco situation in North America; and that's really saying something.
I think the problem is inherent in early adoption. The people who buy the first version of the thing are happy to wait another couple versions before upgrading, because they already have something which is substantially similar to the upgrade. You see this with people comparing the telco situation in Ethiopia (which despite a terrible organizational model, and very little capital, is improving rapidly) to anywhere in the developed world doesn't make sense. If you have landlines and a cable TV infrastructure, 4G over the air will have less demand automatically.
American card terminals pretty much universally suck compared to everywhere else in the western world so it's not that surprising to me.
According to staff at a few shops in my area when asked why they always ask if tap to pay is ok they said a lot of people still don't allow them to tap and insist on chip+pin still.
You mean in Australia? Yeah, I worked in retail while I lived there and it was pretty common. People seemed to think that using it would somehow make them more vulnerable to thieves for some reason. I even had friends who called the bank to exchange their card for one that didn't do contactless.
We also have contactless payment on most of our credit cards (as in built into the card, not Android/Apple Pay) and support for it on ~90% of terminals as well though so it's not much used anymore.