Mobile Payment Magazine

The Ins and Outs of Remote Payments

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Analysts and business owners alike seem to agree that the mobile payment market is up and coming. Each day more and more retailers and service providers are looking for new and different ways to get customers in the door, onto their website, or interested in their services. While there are several ways to accomplish all of these, many analysts agree that offering consumers new and fresh ways to pay is one way to draw them in.

Debit cards and credit cards, simply put, have changed the way people pay for things, and now the advent of mobile technology is further altering the business landscape. Cash is becoming an old commodity. Credit, debit, and mobile payments are the wave of the future. With that being said, many people still don’t truly understand what mobile payments are, and what benefits they offer consumers and business owners alike. To take advantage of the wonders of remote payments, one needs a crash course: consider it Remote Payments 101, a quick and simple way to understand the process and benefits of remote payments. [Read more…]

Android Gingerbread NFC is Only One-Way Communication

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It turns out that the NFC capabilities in Android Gingerbread phones isn’t quite everything we thought it would be. According to a blog post by Jaroslav Stekl on the website Android Police, the NFC with Gingerbread is currently only one-way. It can read data, but not transmit. He adds that the chip supports two-way communication, but Gingerbread does not.

Clearly there’s some extra hype surrounding the  Google CEO’s Eric Schmidt’s mention of Gingerbread and NFC during the Web 2.0 Summit, which came around the same time as ATT, T-Mobile, and Verizon’s official announcement about their partnership in the Isis Mobile Payment Network. [Read more…]

Samsung Announces New NFC Chip with Flash Memory

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Samsung has announced a new NFC chip with flash memory, adding to the momentum around Near Field Communication (NFC) technology that will enable point-of-sale payments via mobile phone.

NFC is a short-range (up to 10cm or 4inches), high frequency wireless communication technology which allows devices such as smart phones to collect or transmit data to another NFC-enabled device without manual configuration to identify devices. In addition, NFC chip can play a role as a contactless smartcard in use for public transportation payments for bus and subway fares and mobile banking payments. It can also read RFID tags in retail stores or on outdoor billboards for convenient on-the-spot data access.

The announcement comes at about the same time as Google announced the Samsung-made Nexus S — the first phone to use the new Android OS called Gingerbread. The camera comes with built-in NFC technology, as well as a front and rear-facing camera to enable video conferencing.

“NFC is recognized throughout the industry as an easy and effective way to transmit encrypted information between mobile devices or between mobile devices and other stationary NFC-enabled devices such as kiosks,” said Tae-Hoon Kim, vice president of DDI and C&M marketing, System LSI Division, Samsung Electronics. “As momentum builds for adoption of NFC technology in next-generation/ upcoming smart phones, we look forward to securing a competitive footing in NFC-based solutions with our new NFC technology, offering powerful mobile characteristics such as low power design and advanced RF sensitivity.”

The Samsung NFC chip will be ready for mass production in Q1 2011.

Samsung is well established in releasing Android smartphones, and with Android smartphones now holding a 23% market share, Samsung seems well positioned to ride the wave toward NFC mobile payments.

Google to Integrate NFC in “Gingerbread” Android OS

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Google CEO Eric Schmidt has indicated that the coming “Gingerbread” Android release will have integrated Near Field Communication (NFC), which will allow for interaction with hardware devices, and may well lead to a revolution in proximity payment processing via mobile phones, and a new boom of mobile payment startup companies. Schmidt made his comments during the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco earlier today.

Using “tap and pay,” says Schmidt, the theory is that you will be able to walk into stores and do commerce, and eventually replace credit cards.

“Ultimately the technology is personal, secure, and an aggregating technology,” according to Schmidt. Google would expect to partner with payment processors, and the credit card industry believes the losses will be a lot less than with standard credit cards, he added.

View the full interview here: