Mobile Payment Magazine

Mobile Commerce Solutions and Market Opportunities Report

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Mobile commerce is exploding with solutions, applications, and services driven by emerging technologies, use cases, and business models. M-commerce is quite different from traditional e-commerce as the ecosystem and value chain are more dynamic and are evolving in a different manner than e-commerce as a whole. Research and Markets recently release a report entitled “Mobile Commerce Solutions and Market Opportunities,” which bundle is the most comprehensive research covering the market for mobile commerce solutions and market opportunities. The report addresses all key aspects of mobile commerce including contactless payments via NFC and other methods, the relationship between digital advertising and commerce, the effect of social networks and location on commerce, advanced technologies for commerce, and more.

Audience:

  • Mobile Network Operators
  • Mobile Software Developers
  • OSS/BSS Solution Providers
  • Handset and Tablet Manufacturers
  • Mobile Payment Service Providers
  • Content and Applications Aggregators
  • Mobile Marketing and Advertising Providers
  • Telecommunications Infrastructure Providers

Key Topics Covered:

  • Mobile Social Commerce: Social Media + Mobile Commerce Creates Market Opportunities
  • Google + Social Commerce: Evaluating Opportunities and Business Issues
  • Top Revenue Mobile Commerce Applications 2011-2016
  • Where is the Money in Near Field Communications?
  • Mobile Commerce 2011
  • Mobile Local Search 2011 Location-based Search Market
  • Mobile Value Added Service (VAS): Markets, Applications, and Opportunities
  • Near Field Communications (NFC) Markets: Challenges, Opportunities, and Market Forecast to 2016
  • M-Banking Markets and Opportunities
  • The 2011 Ultimate Guide to Location Based Services and Applications
  • Mobile Proximity and Location Based Advertising within Reach
  • Mobile Wallet: Location-based Commerce and Peer-to-Peer Payments
  • Mobile Marketing & Advertising: Challenges and Opportunities
  • Commerce on the Go: Mobile Payment Systems and Solutions
  • Mobile Marketing & Advertising: Challenges and Opportunities
  • Digital Signatures in Mobile Commerce
  • Local Search Meets Social Search

WIMA NFC USA: Nov. 30 – Dec. 1, 2011, San Francisco, CA USA

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WIMA is a global event with a proven track record exclusively dedicated to NFC technology and the name of confidence for hundreds of companies who have attended our event in Monaco over the past 5 years. WIMA brings together industry leaders, start-up companies, application developers, service providers, standards organizations, government bodies and research institutes and by industry demand is now moving forward promoting the outreach, development and implementation of NFC technology to the US market.

Industry experts will present a highly focused cutting edge conference summit. Animated panel discussions will address key issues for both established players and newcomers to the technology from the evolving ecosystem.

The Demo Area – regrouping the latest innovative NFC applications, products and service NFC Technology in a networking environment.

Networking Meeting Planner: make the most of your time and plan your meetings ahead using your personalized Networking Tool & Meeting Planner. Post event the Networking Tool stays open for attendee messaging.

WIMA NFC USA is a great and unique opportunity for current and future potential developers to network with key players and leading companies from the NFC industry.

Who will attend?

  • Large Enterprises
  • SME’s
  • Start-Up’s
  • Industry Associations / Standards Organizations
  • Government Bodies
  • Research & Educational Institutions
  • Analysts
  • VC’s
  • Media

Industry Sectors

  • Solution Developers: Payment – Ticketing – Loyalty – Access Control – Healthcare – Gaming – Social Media – Advertising – Web – Multiple Applications
  • Product Manufacturers: Mobile Handsets – Consumer Electronics – Smart Card / RFID manufacturer -Terminals and other devices
  • Component Manufacturers: Semiconductors- Protocol Stacks / Middleware – Operating Systems
  • Service Providers: Carriers – Merchants – Transport Operators – Banking/Financial Services – TSM’s –Tourism – Event Organizers
  • Test / Measurement / Qualification: Test Equipment Vendors – Test Labs
  • System Integrators
  • R&D

More information: WIMA NFC USA 2011

Parkmobile Partners with Citi for Mobile Payments Service

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Parkmobile USA, Inc., a leading provider of cashless parking solutions to municipalities and parking providers around the world, has selected Citi to offer new, more comprehensive mobile payment services to Parkmobile’s customers.

With the new Parkmobile solution, motorists running to catch a train, plane, ferry or appointment can bypass the parking pay station and complete their parking transactions by mobile phone. Parkmobile has selected Citi to provide global payment management services, leveraging its world-class virtual prepaid account capabilities.

“We selected Citi because of their broad and deep experience managing payments for both individual consumers and complex public sector and government organizations,” said Albert Bogaard, CEO of Parkmobile USA, Inc. “By leveraging Citi, we can continue to focus on expanding our core business and advance cashless parking payments technology, while Citi streamlines and integrates the management of payment transactions and brings new innovations in digital payments to our service model.”

Washington DC, The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) and Parkmobile piloted 1,000 parking spaces in 2010 and has implemented Pay by Phone parking services at all of the approximately 17,000 on-street metered spaces in the District of Columbia. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) launched Parkmobile services for its riders in July 2010. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Parkmobile also implemented Pay by Phone parking services for commuters in June 2011.

To use Parkmobile’s service, drivers register for free by setting up an account at www.parkmobile.com , where they can also download a mobile app. Once registered, customers can use the mobile app, the internet, or a 1-800 number to pay for parking. The mobile apps for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry are very easy to use. At that time, they can set up a virtual card account, provided by Citi, through which they can initiate and manage their parking payments. Their account can be loaded via a credit card, debit card or bank account transaction. Once registered, they can use a downloadable mobile application, mobile website or a toll-free phone call to initiate parking payments.

“We are proud to join forces with Parkmobile to meet the needs of parking service providers across the U.S.,” said Gary Schneider, Head of Public Sector Product for North America. “Parkmobile is the premier mobile parking company with market-tested solutions and whose forward-thinking approach to mobile payments closely aligns with Citi’s. This ‘next-generation’ parking concept exemplifies how, through strategic partnerships, we can advance these goals and also bring innovative mobile solutions to both our municipal clients and their customers,” said Schneider.

Smart parking is part of a broader Citi for Cities strategy that aims to harness capabilities and experiences across Citi globally to help municipalities become more efficient, facilitate commerce and modernization, and empowering citizens to access services that enhance livability and prosperity.

Citi Prepaid Services, a division of Citi’s Global Transaction Services, is a leading provider of innovative corporate prepaid solutions. Through a consultative approach, Citi Prepaid provides clients with comprehensive electronic payment programs that reduce costs, enhance operational efficiencies and provide an unmatched user experience. Leveraging an extensive payment platform and proprietary prepaid technology, clients around the world depend on Citi Prepaid’s custom programs for all types of payments including compensation, promotions and disbursements.

Global Transaction Services, a division of Citi’s Institutional Clients Group, offers integrated cash management, trade, and securities and fund services to multinational corporations, financial institutions and public sector organizations around the world. With a network that spans more than 100 countries, Citigroup’s Global Transaction Services supports over 65,000 clients. As of the second quarter of 2011, it held on average $365 billion in liability balances and $13.5 trillion in assets under custody.

MasterCard Demonstrates Google Wallet for Mobile Payments

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MasterCard demonstrated the Google Wallet application, which is scheduled to launch soon.  Running on Sprint’s Nexus S 4G — with a planned expansion to multiple devices — users can connect a Citi MasterCard account to the service, and tap-to-pay at any retail location outfitted with a PayPass station.

The transactions take place as instantaneously as you’d expect, with spending alerts notated automatically in-app, as well as via text message.  Currently, the Google Wallet service is Android-only, and that’s probably a direct result of the AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile backed mobile payment rival, ISIS. [Read more…]

Bank of Montreal Launches “Tap and Pay”

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BMO Bank of Montreal today launched its Mobile PayPass Tag, a technology that allows BMO personal credit card customers to make purchases through a sticker affixed to their mobile phone and receive an instant email verification of each transaction.

By making the PayPass technology available for use on mobile devices, consumers no longer need to carry cash or coin, or even a purse or wallet, with them to make small-dollar-value purchases. They can just tap their mobile phone over the PayPass reader at the point of sale and the transaction is instantly processed to their BMO credit card account. For purchases under $50, no Personal Identification Number (PIN), swipe or signature is required.

Through MasterCard’s inControl platform, BMO’s Mobile PayPass Tag users can easily monitor their spending by opting to receive email notifications that report the merchant and exact location of each PayPass purchase they make with their tag. The tag and email notification services are free to BMO MasterCard cardholders. PayPass technology is already embedded in more than seven million of BMO’s MasterCard credit cards. The PayPass tag for mobile devices simply makes using PayPass that much easier — you don’t even have to pull your card out of your wallet.

“We know that Canadians’ use of cash for smaller-value purchases is based on their desire to get in and out quickly when buying day-to-day items like gas, a quick lunch or a coffee,” said David Heatherly, VP, Payment Products, BMO Bank of Montreal. “PayPass is part of the movement toward a ‘cashless’ society. It’s faster and more convenient than cash or debit, which requires a swipe and PIN.”

Along with speed and convenience, PayPass tag users have the same zero-liability purchase protection and anti-fraud capabilities available on all BMO MasterCard products. And they can collect the same rewards that they earn on their BMO MasterCard credit card, which means PayPass users earn rewards on their total spend and collect more rewards faster.

Merchant Acceptance of PayPass Technology Growing Quickly

“Canadians tell us they prefer simplified, electronic payment methods. Given the prevalence of smartphones, and a quickly expanding network of PayPass merchants, we think mobile PayPass is poised to take off as a popular payment method for Canadians,” said Scott Lapstra, Vice President, Emerging Payments, MasterCard Canada.

According to Mr. Lapstra, PayPass transactions account for nearly 10 per cent of all MasterCard credit card transactions in Canada, with the average PayPass transaction at just over $40 – and close to 50 per cent of those transactions being for purchases of $25 or less.

4G World Asia Call for Papers

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4G World is launching the first ever 4G WORLD ASIA, set for April 17-19, 2012, at the Raffles City Convention Centre in Singapore.

4G World is the only conference and expo focused exclusively on the next-generation trends and technologies fueling growth across mobile network connections, advanced devices, applications and content.

4G World has announced a  call for papers for 4G WORLD ASIA. Prospective speakers are invited to submit proposals by Monday, Oct. 31. The organization is seeking papers describing original ideas, groundbreaking results and/or quantified network/system experiences. In particular, they encourage submissions that highlight real-world deployments, new application domains, innovative system and solution designs, and new approaches to customer experience, business models and monetization of networks.

Submission process
Proposals for the call for papers must be submitted electronically on the 4G WORLD ASIA Web site.

 

NFC-enabled Point of Sale Ready to Explode, Says Report

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Hosted POS Revenue Projections - AITESeeking to sell hardware and grow revenue, the major original equipment manufacturers (OEMs)—VeriFone, Ingenico, and Hypercom—have developed and begun to implement business strategies that will drive near-field-communication (NFC) technologies into general availability in the United States, opening the door for a variety of new mobile marketing solutions enabled at the POS.

The current inflexibility of transaction-routing infrastructure ensures that existing authorization infrastructure will be unable to handle the new transaction types created by these marketing solutions. This will force the rapid evolution of a new set of hosted transaction-gateway and terminal-management solutions, with revenue opportunities for gateway providers approaching US$0.35 billion annually by 2015. Payments firms that miss the move will take a hit; merchant acquirers, independent sales organizations (ISOs), gateways, processors, and payment networks must develop a strategy that ensures delivery of flexible and centrally hosted POS environments.

A new report from Aite Group projects the deployment of mobile-capable hardware, software, and transaction-routing capabilities necessary to enable point-of-sale-integrated mobile marketing solutions and mobile payments in the United States. Based on more than 50 Aite Group interviews with industry stakeholders conducted from April through July 2011, the report also details the transformation of today’s point-of-sale (POS) infrastructure into tomorrow’s mobile environment.

“Current trends in the payments industry are driving a more complex point-of-sale infrastructure that will require POS services to be offered as hosted monthly services,” says Rick Oglesby, senior analyst with Aite Group and author of this report. “The POS terminal itself may soon become more similar to a cable TV box, opening a portal to a wealth of services to be accessed at the point of transaction. For payments companies, an opportunity exists to be the cable company itself, aggregating the various services in a gateway model and simplifying the way in which services can be accessed.”

Source: Aite Group

VeriFone Raises Outlook on Mobile Payment Hopes

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VeriFone Systems Inc. posted better-than-expected quarterly results and raised its full-year outlook as it ropes in more customers for mobile payment technologies. The credit card swipe machine maker is betting on strong demand for near field communication (NFC) technology that allows people to pay for their purchases by waving an NFC-enabled mobile phone.
[Read more…]

mHITs Australia SMS Payment Service Wins 2011 Australian Mobile Awards in Finance, Business and mCommerce Category

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The mHITs Australia SMS payment service was announced as a WINNER in the 2011 Australian Mobile Awards. mHITs was selected as the winner of the Mobile Trading Platform section within the Finance, Business and mCommerce category of the awards.

“We are very excited to have received this award” says mHITs founder and CEO Harold Dimpel. “mHITs is a simple SMS based payment service that is available to all Australian mobile phone users. This latest award is recognition that innovation and successful commercialization are possible even in challenging economic times” he continues.

The mHITs service allows users to send and receive payments via SMS text message.  Users can send and receive payments to each other by SMS or can order and pay for food and beverage items such as coffee from mHITs venues.  Focusing on micro-payments, the platform is the only carrier-independent and bank-independent mobile payment wallet in the Asia-Pacific region that offers full service functionality including person-to-person and merchant payment options including Point Of Sale capability.

Source: PR Wire

Mobile Malware – What It Is and How To Protect Your Business

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As smartphone sales are growing, the development of mobile malware, viruses that penetrate the security system of mobile devices, also increases. Because the smart phones are becoming increasingly more sophisticated and their operating systems are becoming more similar to a computer, it is now possible for them to be infected with malware and it is important for all business owners to be aware of this.

Just like computer malware, mobile malware is installed on your smartphone and will attempt to steal information and data stored on your phone. The information that can be stolen includes documents, passwords, email login details and even credit card details just like on a PC.
[Read more…]