Mobile Payment Magazine

MobileAppEx Tradeshow and Conference – June 14-16, 2011, Chicago, IL

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MobileAppEx is an event for people interested in using mobile technology in their business. The conference presents a range of the mobile ecosystem; connecting Networks, Hardware, Applications and Users.

Who should exhibit? Developers, service providers, distributors and hardware manufacturers looking to reach out to new business prospects with their products, solutions and/or services.

Who should attend? Anyone owning or operating a business which needs a mobile solution in order to initiate or increase productivity.

Mobile AppEx fosters the cross-pollination of innovative ideas in marketing, retail, health care, hospitality, eCommerce, manufacturing, mobile carriers, transportation, education, legal, Government, VCs or real estate – this is the event for you!

At the MobileAppEx conference:

  • APP USERS including individuals, entrepreneurs and businesses can explore how they can better connect with their customers, improve productivity, drive sales and increase revenue via mobile technology—as well as attend @Biz Workshops;
  • APP VENDORS including mobile suppliers, developers and experts can learn from each other and connect with new potential clients—as well as attend @Dev Workshops; and
  • Everyone interested in the business-building power of mobile technology can make valuable face-to-face connections

More information: MobileAppEx

Veracity Payment Solutions Purchases WorldNet Payment Gateway Software

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Veracity Payment Solutions today announced the signing of an unconditional license agreement with WorldNet, the Dublin-based provider of secure online payment services to domestic and international eCommerce and mCommerce clients. Under the license agreement WorldNet will provide source code and collaborative development support for customization of the WorldNet Online Payment Processing platform for the U.S. market.

“We are pleased to add this state of the art gateway platform to our ever increasing portfolio of technology solutions”

“Veracity will be able to compete at the highest level of eCommerce and mCommerce processing with the addition of our new multi-currency gateway product,” states Joseph Cohane, Chief Executive Officer with Veracity Payment Solutions. “Veracity is the first U.S. acquirer to offer this proven gateway solution to merchants in North America. The ability to own our own customized version of the software supported by the talented professionals of both organizations brings Veracity’s product offering to an exciting new level,” said Cohane.

WorldNet Chief Executive, Will Byrne commented, “We are delighted to announce our agreement with Veracity Payment Solutions as it represents a very significant milestone in the expansion of our business to new markets and jurisdictions beyond our current European base.”

John Clarke, Head of Product Innovation at WorldNet commented that “the WorldNet solution supports the next generation of online Payment Gateway requirements, which we refer to as Payment Gateway 2.0. This is a multi channel solution, which addresses both eCommerce and mCommerce requirements in a seamless manner. Add to this the ability to customize the solution and we dramatically reduce the time for our partners to get to market with a full branded offering.”

“We are pleased to add this state of the art gateway platform to our ever increasing portfolio of technology solutions,” commented Grant Putre, Chief Information Officer with Veracity Payment Solutions. “This alliance is another important step in our strategy to deliver versatile web-based solutions such as multi-currency processing and dynamic currency conversion to our customers, while providing a rich base of custom solutions that are secure, cost-effective and easy for customers to manage. We look forward to working with WorldNet’s talented developers to deliver innovative solutions to our customers,” said Putre.

The unique agreement with WorldNet means Veracity can tailor its payment-processing platform to expand in the small to medium sized business sector with customized low-cost solutions. Specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Source: Business Wire

Usablenet Integrates With PayPal’s Mobile Express Checkout for Mobile Website Payments

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Usablenet has announced integration with PayPal’s mobile payments product, Mobile Express Checkout, to enhance payment offerings on clients’ mobile websites. Usablenet can now extend PayPal’s Mobile Express Checkout to mobile commerce websites and other supported solutions, such as mobile applications, tablets, Facebook & other social media, and in-store kiosks. Usablenet works with Fortune 500 companies to extend their websites to any customer, via Mobile, Facebook shops, Apps, Kiosks and Assistive versions.

With more than 90 million active users worldwide, PayPal’s total payment volume represents 16.5% of U.S. e-commerce and 15% of global e-commerce. In Q3 2010, PayPal reported a 26% increase in online payment volume growth compared with Q3 2009, a portion of which was attributed to mobile transactions. Over the 2010 holiday shopping season (from November 15 – December 15, 2010) PayPal experienced a 300% increase in mobile payments volume and closed out 2010 with $750 million in mobile payment volume; this is 50% more than the $500 million PayPal projected earlier in the year.

Founded in 2000, Usablenet has created a technology platform that extends all features, functionality, and content contained on clients’ websites (or other available sources) to their customers wherever they are — including mobile phones, mobile applications, tablets, Facebook and other social media, and in-store kiosks. Usablenet is the mobile partner for nearly 200 Fortune 1000 companies including Amtrak, American Airlines, ASOS.com, Estée Lauder, FedEx, Hilton, JCPenney, JetBlue, and Marks & Spencer, among others.

“Given our significantly shared client base with PayPal, we are thrilled to be able to extend PayPal to mobile and to our other solutions,” said Usablenet President Nick Taylor. “Imagine the power of extending PayPal not only to consumers on mobile phones, but also to those shopping at an in-store kiosk powered by Usablenet or on Facebook where we provide the shopping experience.”

“Usablenet empowers top e-commerce merchants throughout the world,” said Bill Zielke, PayPal’s Senior Director of Merchant Services. “By integrating PayPal’s Mobile Express Checkout with Usablenet’s offerings, businesses can enable consumers to speed through checkout securely using their mobile phones.”

Source: MarketWire

HID Global to Add Mobile Payment Stickers to Its Contactless Payment Options

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HID Global is adding a mobile sticker format to its family of contactless payment and identification cards and is aiming at the mobile phone market as well and NFC payment services, which can be accessed by affixing the sticker to a handset.

The stickers are only likely to act as bridge to contactless mobile payments and Near Field Communication services because gradually in-built secure chips will corner the market as more and more customers take up secure SIM-enabled smartphones. The adhesive-backed sticker is a useful bridge in the meantime, however, and HID Global’s contains an internal ferrite layer that shields electronics from interference even when attached to items containing metal.

via RFPConnect.

mFoundry Named Entrepreneurial Company of the Year by Frost and Sullivan

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The mobile banking and payments industry in the United States faces many challenges, including positioning mobile banking as a strategic differentiation tool, integrating multiple categories of mobile financial services in a coherent framework, and the challenges of a one-size-fits-all-strategy.

Other challenges include offering a consistent experience across all banking modes, allocating resources towards pursuing new opportunities by taking a long-term view of the market potential, establishing strategic agreements with the traditional financial processing organizations to leverage their strong capabilities in enabling banking and payments, and providing in-depth reporting and feedback to the customer financial institutions (FIs).

Recently, Frost & Sullivan analyzed the mobile banking market, and has awarded mFoundry with its Entrepreneurial Company of the Year award for the company’s strong performance in the past 12 months and continued execution on highly differentiating growth strategies.

“mFoundry has emerged as a preferred provider of mobile banking and payment services in the U.S. mobile financial services markets,” notes Frost & Sullivan senior analyst Vikrant Gandhi. “What sets the company apart from competitors is its ability to continuously evolve in line with the changing needs of the customers and seamlessly update its platform with minimal disruption to its installed base of users.”

mFoundry has adopted a few highly effective growth strategies to achieve success. Firstly, it provides a capable, scalable and secure set of offerings targeted at different types of FIs (both large and small) with a clear, phased roadmap for associated mobile banking and mobile payment services.

The software offers one of the most comprehensive sets of analytics and reporting capabilities. Next, mFoundry has established the largest partner network in the industry by partnering with leading financial processors, credit card associations and other financial powerhouses – resulting in an average of more than 15 new customer additions per month. This also allows channel partners to rapidly deploy mFoundry-powered mobile banking solutions among their customer base

Most importantly, the company demonstrates a willingness and ability to refine its go-to-market strategy to keep pace with the rapid pace of evolutions of the mobile ecosystem – for instance, it continuously offers support for next-generation Smartphones and emerging devices to ensure a broad coverage for its customers (the FIs). Today, mFoundry works with more than 265 banks, credit unions, and issuers in the United States and continues to rapidly increase its customer base for both mobile banking and mobile payments services.

mFoundry has several innovations to its credit. It powers the Starbucks mobile gift card payment application in the United States, which is the largest such initiative of its kind. This has given the company tremendous credibility as it is the only m-banking company that has a live mobile payments solution of this scale in the United States. Other innovations that are in trials, or are already commercially available, include rich analytics, mobile remote deposit, mobile peer-to-peer (P2P) payments, near field communications (NFC) implementations, and others.

“The roadmap for the competition’s services in mobile banking and payments is not yet clear, and mFoundry is clearly a leader when it comes to providing innovative, high-potential, growth-oriented mobile financial services,” asserts Gandhi. “The fact that leading financial processors are willing to partner closely with mFoundry is a validation in itself, and speaks volumes about the company’s aggressive pursuit of excellence on the product, marketing and sales fronts.”

According to the company, mFoundry provides value to customers in multiple ways. It enables banks, credit unions, and issuers to start using the mobile channel with ease and get comprehensive reporting and feedback to understand and fine-tune their offerings on an ongoing basis to achieve the best results. The company also provides FIs with avenues to offer a wide range of banking and payment services to all customers. Finally, mFoundry offers multiple deployment options as well as solutions that are modular and extensible platforms to mobilize the future mobile banking and payment services.

Be it mobile payments, analytics, configurable console-based implementations, or others, mFoundry has always been known as the ‘company to watch’ in the U.S. mobile banking and mobile payments markets. Its ability to introduce successful next-generation mobile financial services before others makes the company a key enabler in this space and the worthy recipient of the 2010 North American Frost & Sullivan Award for Entrepreneurial Company of the Year in mobile banking.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated Entrepreneur Spirit by devising a strong growth strategy and robustly implementing it. The recipient has shown strength in terms of innovation in products and technologies, leadership in customer value as well as market penetration and speedy response to market needs. in short, the award looks at the emerging market players in the industry and recognizes their best practices that are positioned for future growth excellence.

Frost & Sullivan’s Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.

North American Bancard (NAB) Launches Pay Anywhere Mobile Payment App

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North American Bancard (NAB) announced  today the  launch of its Pay Anywhere mobile payment application, which allows users to process credit card payments via mobile devices. NAB currently processes more than $10 billion in electronic transactions annually for more than 100,000 merchants nationwide.

“Until now people have had to compromise when picking a mobile payment option. While some are flashy and free, they can lack critical financial and security resources on the back-end. Others offer the reliability many consumers want, but are cost-prohibitive,” said Marc Gardner, NAB founder and president.

“Pay Anywhere is the first to offer the best of both worlds – superior hardware and technology, ease-of-use, an affordable pay-as-you-go platform and the peace-of-mind that comes with NAB’s nearly 20 years of credit card processing experience.”

The Pay Anywhere application is free from Apple’s App Store. Upon approval of a merchant account, the card reader accessory, which usually retails for $149.95, also will be given to users free. The card reader is included so that users can swipe cards to receive lower transaction rates.

Pay Anywhere’s application is backed by 24/7 support, NAB’s 400-person staff and nearly 20 years of credit card processing experience. Pay Anywhere uses the highest available level of encryption and the strictest standards of payment card industry security.

Cost and Fees:

  • No setup fees
  • No application fees
  • No monthly service fees
  • No cancellation fees at any time
  • No monthly minimums required

Pay Anywhere charges a flat fee of 19 cents per transaction, and 2.69% and 3.49%  in service costs for swiped and keyed entries, respectively.
The Pay Anywhere application is currently available for Apple iPhone 3G, 3GS and 4 users, as well as the Apple iPad and iPod Touch, and will soon be available for Android and BlackBerry mobile customers. The card reader accessory is currently available for iPhone 3G and 3GS, with an audio jack accessory for iPhone 4, the iPad and iPod Touch coming soon. Pay Anywhere accepts all major credit cards.

The free Pay Anywhere app can be set up in a few minutes. Pay Anywhere users can set default tax and tip percentages, inventory and categorize items and services, take advantage of real-time sales tracking and reporting and “go green” with custom e-mail receipts.

“We want Pay Anywhere users to be confident every time they sell a product or service or pay for one, so we made the same NAB professional resources and expertise that our business customers receive accessible to everyone,” continued Gardner. “In addition to the free app and free reader, Pay Anywhere merchants will only pay when they use the service. If their business is seasonal and they process transactions only three months of the year, they pay nothing for the other nine months.”

More information: Pay Anywhere

HTC Invests in Shanghai F-road

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HTC Corporation is continuing its investment in mobile communications service and technologies. Lately, the company announced to invest USD 5.5 million in Shanghai F-road Commercial Services Co., Ltd., a mobile payment service provider in Mainland China. HTC will have a seat in the board of Shanghai F-road. Earlier, in November 2010, the company put USD 2.5 million in NetQin Mobile Inc., a leading provider of mobile security services.

Since Web sites of banks are easy to be attacked by hackers, Shanghai F-road develops mobile bankcards in combination with SIM cards and chips, which will be connected with the data centers of banks and avoid security risks. Currently, the company’s customers include rural commercial banks in Jiangsu and Chongqing.

via TradingMarkets.com

OMS Expo 2011, The Open Mobile Summit & Expo, San Francisco, CA – Nov. 8, 2011

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The Open Mobile Summit & Expo

Venue: San Francisco Marriott Marquis

Country: San Francisco, United States Of America

Start Date: 08-NOV-11 End Date: 10-NOV-11

Industry: Telecom Products

EVENT PROFILE

The Open Mobile Summit & Expo one of the biggest & largest, most comprehensive show in the wireless industry and the premier venue to exchange ideas, create partnerships and collaborate to bring wireless telecommunications to new heights. It will be held at San Francisco Marriott Marquis, USA, being organized by Open Mobile Media.

VISITOR’S PROFILE

This global event draws attendees from dozens of different industries

in more than 80 countries around the world, serving every aspect of wireless – providers, users, developers, buyers and manufacturers.

EXHIBITOR’S PROFILE
Profile for exhibit include wireless telecommunication, Hot Spot service, Wireless streaming, navigation, visual telecommunication, Mobile IP, Intelligent home appliances, PDA, mobile PC, wireless LAN, content, cardTelematics & Internet ITS devices, systems, portal solutions, antennas, Bluetooth chips/protocol stack/devices, test equipment and many others.

More Information: OMS Expo 2011,The Open Mobile Summit & Expo,San Francisco.

Asia-Pacific Mobile Payments to Double in Five Years

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Mobile payments (m-payments) in Asia-Pacific are expected to record transactions worth more than two-fold from 2009 revenues of US$1.6 billion in five years, according to Frost & Sullivan. The company estimates that in 2015 m-payments could exceed billings of US$3.6 billion at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 14.8 percent (2010-2015).

Frost & Sullivan industry analyst Shaker Amin attributes this growth to technology innovations and operators’ initiatives – particularly with NFC (Near Field Communication) – as well as rising consumer demand in both the developed and emerging markets.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, 2010 Asia-Pacific Mobile Payments Outlook – 18 Asia-Pac nations including Japan, finds that contactless payments via the NFC channel will increase in popularity to account for 23 percent of all m-payments in 2015, from only 12 percent last year.

via Frost & Sullivan