Amazon.com Inc. is considering the introduction of a service that would let consumers pay for goods in brick-and-mortar stores using their mobile phones, according to two people with knowledge of the project.
The company’s Amazon Payments unit is exploring whether to start a service based on so-called near-field-communication technology, said the people, who asked not to be named because the project isn’t public.
via Businessweek.
Samsung and Visa have announced plans to bring NFC payment technology to the market as part of their sponsorships of London 2012, enabling consumers to make mobile payments using the Samsung Olympic and Paralympic Games mobile handset.
Samsung Electronics Visa are combining their sponsorship assets and technologies to ensure that the Olympic and Paralympic Games mobile handset available to the general public will be equipped with technology that enables mobile payments, Near Field Communications (NFC) and Visa’s contactless payment technology. To make payments, customers simply select the Visa mobile contactless application, select pay and hold the phone in front of a contactless reader at the point of purchase.
Visa is working with banks and retailers worldwide to roll-out acceptance for Visa contactless cards, as well as mobile phones, as part of an industry wide roll-out of contactless technology. In London there are already more than 60,000 locations where contactless payments are accepted and contactless and electronic card payments will be available in the run-up to and during the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. With the momentum to commercialize mobile payments globally, consumers will be able to make mobile contactless payments in the run up to and during the Games in many countries around the world.
Samsung and Visa will work together to provide the contactless enabled Olympics handset to Visa and Samsung sponsored athletes as part of this initiative. Samsung and Visa also plan to make the handset available for consumers to purchase through mobile network operators and other distributors. A Visa-enabled SIM card will be required for use with the device in order to make purchases at retailers who have the contactless payment system.
“Visa, like Samsung, shares the vision of leveraging our Olympic and Paralympic Games sponsorship to leave a lasting legacy in the market for banks, retailers, mobile operators and consumers. We are not only breaking new ground for Olympic partnerships, we are committed to enabling consumers to connect with mobile and contactless payments technology for 2012 and beyond,” said Peter Ayliffe, CEO of Visa Europe. “We look forward to working with financial institutions and mobile operators alongside Samsung to make this initiative a success.”
“Innovation is a key business driver for Visa and mobile payments are one of the main areas we’re focusing on. The Olympic and Paralympic Games enables us to accelerate our business goals and this partnership plays a large role in achieving them,” said Mariano Dima, Executive Vice President of Marketing and Payment Solutions at Visa Europe.
“As a pioneer in mobile technology, Samsung is striving for long term change in the way we use mobile payments. In London next year, we regard the greatest show on earth as the perfect opportunity to showcase how this technology can make a positive difference to people’s lives – enabling them to feel closer to the Olympic and Paralympic Games. This mobile payment device will be available in the UK initially, and we plan to expand the service to other countries in Europe and around the world where contactless payment facilities are available in the near future,” said Seokpil Kim, President & CEO of Samsung Electronics Europe.
Gyehyun Kwon, Vice President & Head of Worldwide Sports Marketing, Samsung Electronics added, “This marks the very first partnership between two Worldwide Olympic Partners of the London 2012 Games. We are delighted to be joining forces with Visa to make the Olympic Games more accessible and convenient for everyone. This fits extremely well with our ambition to enable more people to participate in the Games through our smart technology.”
Visa and Samsung will work with mobile network operators, financial institutions and retailers around the world to bring the convenience, security and reliability of Visa’s contactless technology to mobile users worldwide. Currently, Visa mobile payments are being rolled out in countries across the globe including Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Brazil, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Malaysia, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Slovakia, Switzerland, Turkey, the UK and the United States.
Source: BusinessWire
Digital security company, Gemalto, has announced the first UICC-embedded software application compliant with Mobile MasterCard PayPass M/Chip 4, the brand new MasterCard payment specification designed for mobile near field communications (NFC).
The software application and the UICC have both successfully achieved the compliance assessment and security testing certification in accordance with MasterCard’s highest chip security requirements.
The certification paves the way for mass commercial rollouts of NFC payment across the world. In the UK, Gemalto is already partnering with a global, first-tier financial institution and a world leading mobile operator, to implement the new MasterCard certified mobile payment application and carry out the solution’s first mass commercial roll out.
Gemalto’s software application embeds the Trusted Service Management interface for PayPass. This feature enables mobile account issuance and over-the-air management. Its handset interface makes mobile NFC payment convenient—for example allowing consumers to manage the new payment means and check transaction history. It also allows consumers to define their mobile Personal Identification Number (PIN), a code of their choice, through their phone. The mobile PIN is a new cardholder verification method used notably to secure operations such as account top-up from the mobile phone.
The Gemalto mobile NFC payment application can be configured to cover all card portfolios including debit, credit and prepaid. For prepaid, the software application lets consumers to top-up their prepaid accounts directly from their mobile phones.
“We are pleased to collaborate with Gemalto to broadly expand the use of mobile payment services,” commented James Anderson, vice president, Mobile, MasterCard Worldwide. “Leveraging the interoperability of MasterCard PayPass, Gemalto’s effort will enable cross-border mobile NFC payment, adding ease to the fast-paced lifestyles of more and more consumers across the world.”
“This new certification from MasterCard makes Gemalto the first on the market for this mobile product and will enable banks and wireless operators to offer a secure, innovative and convenient payment means to their entire customer base,” added Jean-Claude Deturche, senior vice-president of mobile financial solutions at Gemalto. “Gemalto is committed to supporting its customers in their large scale deployments of mobile NFC payment, with a complete mobile contactless offer.”
Source: Gemalto
According to two people with knowledge of the inner workings of a coming iteration of the Apple iPhone — although not necessarily the next one — a chip made by Qualcomm for the phone’s processor will also include near-field communication technology, known as NFC.
This technology enables short-range wireless communications between the phone and an NFC reader, and can be used to make mobile payments. It is unclear which version of an iPhone this technology would be built into.
via New York Times.
Tech stocks are flying high again. During the past three months, none has climbed higher than NXP Semiconductors (NASDAQ: NXPI), the leading maker of near field communications chips that turn cell phones into digital wallets. Shares of the Netherlands-based company have climbed 130 percent during that period, more than any publicly traded stock in the world with a market capitalization of at least $2 billion, tech stock or otherwise. [Read more…]
Sybase, Inc. subsidiary, Sybase 365, has released the results of its survey about leading inhibitors of widespread adoption of mobile payments.
According to the company, 40% of survey respondents cited the main inhibitor of widespread mobile payment adoption was a lack of coordination between key stakeholders, including mobile operators, merchants, payment processors, banks and developers.
“For mobile commerce to take off, industry stakeholders must harmonize their efforts in the same way that led to proliferation of SMS and MMS technologies,” said Marty Beard, President, Sybase 365. “In markets where multiple parties are working together, such as mpass Germany and paybox Austria, we have successful ecosystems where end users can pay for a multitude of goods and services via the mobile.”
While NFC will help further enable mobile payments, successful and established mobile technologies, including SMS and USSD are already leading the development of the ecosystem today.
“Mobile channels such as SMS, browser and apps are already being implemented by merchants globally. The challenge facing NFC is how to make the consumer payment experience significantly faster and easier than it already is.” added Beard.
Among 251 attendees polled at GSMA Mobile World Congress last week, 76 percent believe mobile proximity payments using NFC (Near Field Communication) technology is still at least two years away. Once again the lack of industry coordination (30 percent) was the cited as the main culprit for delayed NFC adoption. Other challenges included lack of NFC readers at point-of-sale (26 percent) and inadequate handsets (25 percent) were cited as inhibiting rapid deployment of mobile payments.
Source: Sybase 365
Many of the world’s leading operators, including América Móvil, Axiata Group Berhad, Bharti, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, KT Corporation, MTS, Orange, Qtel Group, SK Telecom, Softbank Mobile, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telekom Austria Group, Telenor and Vodafone, have voiced their commitment to implementing Near Field Communications (NFC) technology, and intend to launch commercial NFC services in select markets by 2012.
“NFC is perhaps best known for its role in enabling mobile payments, but its applications go far beyond that,” said Franco Bernabè, Chairman, GSMA and CEO, Telecom Italia. “NFC represents an important innovation opportunity, and will facilitate a wide range of interesting services and applications for consumers, such as mobile ticketing, mobile couponing, the exchange of information and content, control access to cars, homes, hotels, offices car parks and much more.”
The market potential for NFC is significant—according to Frost & Sullivan, the total payment value for NFC globally will reach more than €110 billion in 2015 – and momentum behind the technology is growing rapidly. To address this opportunity and to provide valuable new services to mobile users worldwide, the operator community is focused on driving the standardised deployment of mobile NFC, using the SIM as the secure element to provide authentication, security and portability.
To achieve this, the GSMA will develop the necessary certification and testing standards to ensure global interoperability of NFC services. This interoperability is critical to the widespread adoption of NFC, enabling users to benefit from NFC services around the world, regardless of operator network or device type.
“As we have seen, the adoption of different approaches to NFC will only serve to fragment the market,” continued Bernabè. “By uniting around a single standardised approach to mobile NFC and by collaborating across the entire ecosystem, our industry will continue to develop the compelling services that customers demand.”
via World’s Leading Mobile Operators Announce Commitment to NFC Technology ~ GSM World.
Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, thinks wireless transactions, enabled by the coming wave of Android smartphones outfitted with near-field communication (NFC) technology, could turn into a serious business for the company.
Speaking to a small group of reporters late Tuesday after his keynote presentation at the Mobile World Congress here, Schmidt said Google could work with advertisers to “extend offers to phones with NFC chips.” Advertisers, he said, were interested in combining an ad and an offer, presumably at the point of sale.
via NY Times.
A new poll by global research and technology firm Vision Critical shows that Britons are wary of mobile NFC contactless payments—with women voicing particular unease about the security implications.
Consumers are distinctly uncomfortable with contactless payments made through their mobile device. In the survey, half of respondents (51%) report being fairly or very uncomfortable at the prospect. Women are particularly skeptical; but there is a niche of young men and current smartphone users who support the practice.
More consumers trust banks to operate a mobile payment platform than card providers, mobile operators or handset manufacturers.
Two-in-five respondents (41%) favor debiting funds from a current bank account, while one-in-five (20%) would prefer a dedicated “mobile wallet” account for the purpose of making mobile payments. Mobile payments would decrease the use of cash and debit cards more than credit cards with one third of respondents (33%) saying they would spend a lot or a little less with cash and debit cards. One-in-five respondents (22%) would spend less on their credit cards with the advent of mobile payments.
“Mobile payments have been talked about for years, and it looks like they’re finally going to get off the ground,” said Mike Stevens, Head of Research at Vision Critical’s London office. “But a lot of people are clearly uncomfortable. There is a perceived security risk that will need to be addressed as services are rolled out. Banks could play a strong role here; they are generally more trusted by their customers than other players in the mobile payments game.”
Source: Vision Critical
Garanti and Turkish mobile network operator Avea recently moved from pilot phase to general commercial availability of their system to adapt existing mobile phones for NFC payments.
VeriFone Systems’ NFC contactless payment acceptance systems are a key interface between merchants and consumers’ mobile phones in Garanti Bank’s first-in-world rollout of a nationwide integrated NFC SIM mobile payment program.
Consumers can purchase and install NFC capable SIM cards that allow them to use their mobile phones for electronic payment at NFC contactless acceptance devices in merchant locations. VeriFone has supplied 10,000 NFC-capable devices to Garanti for merchant use.
“Garanti demonstrated that NFC is now commercially viable,” said Soner Casur, vice president and general manager of VeriFone South East Europe. “The merchant/consumer interface is crucial to success of NFC mobile payment adoption and VeriFone is thrilled to provide key payment acceptance solutions that make it easy to transition to this new era of mobile payments.”
VeriFone is one of the main suppliers of payment solutions to Garanti, with more than 150,000 systems implemented throughout Turkey. For NFC mobile payments, VeriFone’s PINpad 1000SE currently provide merchants and consumers with a field-ready solution for implementation of mobile payments.
VeriFone systems have been in use for Garanti’s existing Bonus Trink contactless payment system, which has provided bank customers with the ability to make payments using a credit card, key fob, watch or the Bonus Trink contactless sticker.
With the new add-on SIM card with antenna from Gemalto and Garanti pre-paid MasterCard PayPass that is loaded in the SIM manufacturing stage, consumers can immediately adapt existing and new mobiles for NFC mobile payments. This product is the first commercial add-on NFC SIM that supports open platform payment system around the world.
Source: Business Wire