Mobile Payment Magazine

Google Launches Mobile Wallet

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In May Google announced its mobile wallet, which uses NFC for tap and pay, in collaboration with Citi, MasterCard, Sprint and First Data.

According to a recent blog post, Google is releasing the first version of the app to Sprint, so Google Wallet will be available on Sprint Nexus S 4G phones.

With the app, customers can pay with a Citi MasterCard credit card and the Google Prepaid Card, which can be funded with any of credit cards.

Osama Bedier, Vice President of Payments wrote in a recent blog post that “Visa, Discover and American Express have made available their NFC specifications that could enable their cards to be added to future versions of Google Wallet.

Source: Official Google Blog

Google Moves Even Stronger Into Mobile Marketing and Payments with Acquisition of Zetawire

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Back in November, Google’s Eric Schmidt teased the crowd at Web 2.0 about Google’s plans for NFC mobile payments using the Android OS, and introduced the Samsung Nexus S running Gingerbread and an NFC chip by NXP. It turns out that as early as August, according to the 451 Group, a technology industry Analyst company, Google  also had purchased Canadian stealth startup Zetawire, which likely has a product built around a payment, identity management and advertising system, based on Zetawire’s open patent application.

Google is moving quickly into the mobile payment arena, but with Google, it’s a lot more than just payments. The company has also been active around location-based and mobile marketing and advertising with the launch of the more robust Google Places and its new Hotspot service. Now, with Near Field Communication (NFC) coming closer to reality (led by Google’s Android OS Nexus S smartphone), the company is increasingly well-positioned to capitalize on the coming boom in mobile payments:

  • Android smartphones (Nexus S), with built-in Near Field Communication (NFC) capabilities
  • Google Places and Hotspot, a fast-growing directory of businesses, along with a Marketing/Advertising platform (remember, Google controls online search results also, which often display Google Places company listings)
  • Mobile marketing
  • Google Checkout

Now covering the spectrum of actions from the search, to the ad or merchant listing, to the click, to the promotion coupon to the payment, Google has a lot of touch-points to profit from, and to track ROI.

While some of Google’s previous efforts to branch out its offering of services have withered (Social Networking, for example), the company caught a huge break while Apple’s iPhone was stuck at ATT by launching the very successful Android OS for a generation of smartphones running on alternate networks such as Verizon’s.  By August of this year, Nielsen reported that new smartphone subscribers choosing Android phones were at 27 percent, surpassing Apple iPhone’s 23% share.

References: TechCrunch; Mashable

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.