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Friday, June 11, 2010

Mobile payments: solutions get dumber while cards get smarter?

Mark Bridge writes:

Last week I spotted a couple of mobile-related news stories that involved payment company MasterCard. One came from CPI Card Group, which had introduced a “next-generation, MasterCard-approved payment tag” (a.k.a. 'sticker') that enabled “any mobile device to be used to make payments anywhere using the worldwide contactless MasterCard PayPass standard” (by sticking it on the back).

But that's not really about the mobile payments market, is it?  Sticking a flexible payment card to the back of a phone is no more “mobile payment” than sticking it on my shoe would demonstrate CPI's commitment to the shoe-payment market – or swallowing an MP3 player would turn me into a cyborg.

It's convergence by gaffa tape, that's all.

Mind you, if I could replace a fingernail with one of those cards… hmmm… watch out, Professor Kevin Warwick.

MasterCard's own MoneySend application doesn't seem much better. Oh sure, it's online, but it's not really adding anything to the m-payment story. If you live in the USA you can use your iPhone to send or receive payments between friends. It works with certain banks and credit unions... and sounds a bit like PayPal to me. Except that PayPal launched its mobile service in those days of pre-history before Apple launched its iPhone.

This week there’s still no sign of smartphones turning into payment cards – but payment cards are definitely getting smarter. NagraID Security has developed a debit card and credit card that looks like other payment cards but includes a small display and a button to generate one-time passwords for additional authentication. These cards comply with MasterCard’s standards, so there’s no reason we shouldn’t see them soon. Very soon.

The moral?  There’s more than one direction that electronic ‘real-world’ payments could go. Or, as Saint Ben of Masabi puts it, “Just because you can do something with mobile doesn’t mean you should”.

 

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1 comments on article "Mobile payments: solutions get dumber while cards get smarter?"

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The Fonecast

4/19/2012 7:55 AM

Today Barclaycard has announced a stick-on credit card. That's all - no talk of apps or the web. And it's supposed to be 'mobile'. Pah!

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Opinion Articles

Last week at The Fonecast: 26th September 2011

Mark Bridge writes:

Welcome to a summary of last week’s mobile industry news from TheFonecast.com.

The biggest mobile-flavoured story from the past seven days was probably HP’s replacement of its president and CEO. Léo Apotheker is out after less than a year, replaced by former eBay CEO Meg Whitman. It’s not likely to affect the company’s plans for webOS tablets and phones… but it’ll be interesting to see what Ms Whitman does next.

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Don't worry about Facebook Timeline... worry about your data, wherever it is

Mark Bridge writes:

I’m glad I don't work for Facebook. One minute everyone loves you, the next minute they hate you. Multiply that by the 500 million people now using Facebook every day and I’d be pretty insecure.

Author: The Fonecast
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Not all mystery shopping is a complete mystery

Mark Bridge writes:

If you’ve worked in retail, you’re probably aware of the ‘mystery shopper’. This is someone who appears to be a regular consumer but is actually reviewing your performance. Perhaps they’re working for your employer, maybe they’re conducting an independent survey, they may even be reporting for a magazine or newspaper. But they’re about as welcome as a knock on the front door when you’re at home in the shower.

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Only 17 per cent of advertisers have a mobile-optimised site

Google UK head of mobile advertising, Simon Morgan, considers the most significant developments in the field of m-commerce and crunches the mobile numbers.

Over the past year we've seen smartphones overtake PC sales for the first time. The number of people on the mobile web globally has doubled, reaching one billion and in the UK there are now 20 million mobile internet users. If we think of search as being a barometer of consumer interest, in just 12 months there has been a huge shift.

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Geography meets Social Media on 'Geosocial' sites

Ted Landphair of voanews.com writes:

There’s a well-worn phrase in real estate: “location, location, location,” meaning that where a property is located, alone, means more than anything else when it comes to assessing its value.

But ‘location’ is getting new meanings in these days of smartphones and other hand-held devices.

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