Sprint has big plans for its digital wallet. It wants to become a “virtual bank” for customers who don’t have checking accounts and a supplemental financial service for those that do. Read more »
The Sprint prepaid brand is testing out a financial services app that allows you to pay bills, transfer funds and cash checks within a mobile app. For physical transactions, Boost is supplying a prepaid Visa card. Read more »
The mobile platform wars escalated once again in the first quarter of 2012 as BlackBerry finally took the wraps off its much-anticipated new operating system. Meanwhile Android continued to build on its dominance both worldwide and in the U.S., cementing a two-horse race with Apple. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Masabi is a U.K. startup specializing and cloud-based smartphone ticketing technologies for public transit, and it just landed a $2.8 million strategic investment led by Bill Ford’s Fontinalis Venutures. Read more »
The mobile platform wars heated up in a big way as 2012 came to a close. Among other trends, Microsoft launched Windows Phone 8, Android’s dominant market share grew, and mobile commerce reached record highs during the holidays. Read more »
BillGuard, a crowd-sourced financial protection service that flags suspicious activity for consumers, is taking its services to mobile wallet app Lemon, which has 2.5 million users on iOS and Android. Now, Lemon users can check their balance on stored cards, see recent transactions and suspicious activity. Read more »
Most mobile wallets are about replacing bank cards, or tickets and coupons. A new mobile wallet from Giesecke & Devrient aims to replace not only these, but also ID cards, building and vehicle keys, and public transport tickets. Read more »
After missing its planned summer launch, mobile payment joint venture Isis is now finally live in its first two test cities of Austin and Salt Lake City. Users can try out Isis on nine handsets from Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. Read more »
Placecast is adding card-linked offers to its ShopAlerts location-based offers platform. Now, users can get a message about a nearby deal and then redeem it with a swipe of their credit or debit card. Read more »
Lemon, maker of a mobile wallet apps that stores digital copies of IDs, cards, receipts, coupons and tickets, is now opening up its app to outside publishers, who can integrate their cards and services through a new API. This will heighten the competition with Apple’s Passbook. Read more »
LevelUp is expanding its reach with a white label tool that lets merchants build their own custom app that uses LevelUp for payments and loyalty. That can help LevelUp appeal to merchants who want to offer a branded app but still connect to LevelUp’s network. Read more »
In the five years since the iPhone hit the market, Apple and Google have delivered more than 40 billion cumulative downloads of apps. Other sources predict the app marketplace will swell to surpass 66 billion downloads in 2016, a growth fueled by tablet, entertainment, and enterprise apps. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Google is talking up the potential for Google Wallet to be more than just a payment tool. Leaders want Google Wallet to be a place to store boarding passes, tickets, identification and gift cards. That was the vision all along but it may be ready soon. Read more »
Social commerce startup Wikets, backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Battery Ventures, is rolling out a new version of its app that builds out its shopping functionality. To date, it has focused on building a network of shoppers who ask for and make recommendations. Read more »
The mobile payment market is getting even more crowded thanks to a big play by a consortium of retailers including Target, Walmart, Sears and others who are creating their own mobile wallet. The move will give them a chance to save costs and protect their data. Read more »
Paydiant is announcing $12 million in Series B funding led by Stage 1 Ventures, which will go toward the build out of its white-label payment and offers platform for banks and retailers. The company enables banks and merchants to add mobile payment services into existing apps. Read more »
Placecast, which allows retail brands and operators to push out location-based offers, is now making its ShopAlerts technology available to mobile payment and mobile wallet providers. Retailers, operators or credit card companies with existing payment apps will be able to incorporate ShopAlerts into their apps. Read more »
Lemon, a mobile expense receipt tracker, isn’t just interested in helping people organize their receipts by taking pictures of them. It is looking at becoming a full mobile wallet for users and it’s just raised $8 million to go after that goal. Read more »
Isis, the mobile payment joint venture of AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, has added American Express cards to its wallet. The news helps build more momentum for the Isis payment platform, which now has a broad array of payment cards that will work inside the mobile wallet. Read more »
While credit card rival MasterCard announced its own digital wallet platform, Visa has some news of its own. It’s launching the first beta of its wallet service V.me with online retailer Buy.com as it prepares to go public with the its payment product. Read more »
iCache is working to help people leave their wallets behind using an innovative iPhone case called Geode, that can digitize all of a user’s payment cards and loyalty cards and provides a simple way to present them at checkout at all stores. Read more »
Target and Wal-Mart are part of a consortium of retailers looking to build a mobile payment system, joining a host of heavyweights such as Google, PayPal and the carrier-backed Isis. But the wide range of offerings will only serve to shackle the ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
PayPal hasn’t done much to overhaul the consumer experience of its digital wallet. But the company is poised to launch a redesigned experience, which it will provide a sneak preview of next week at South by Southwest in advance of a big launch this summer. Read more »
Isis, the mobile payment joint venture of Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile, is showing off its service for the first time to consumers at SXSW. The NFC mobile wallet has been lining up the necessary components for a limited launch this summer. Read more »
The future of location-based services is in commerce, payments and deals, said Sam Altman, founder of Loopt. He just sold his startup to pre-paid card provider Green Dot and is working on mobile payment products. That’s where he said location will have the biggest impact. Read more »
Walmart, Target and other retailers are working together on their own next generation payment system that will compete against the likes of Google Wallet, Isis, PayPal and many others. While it will add more confusion, it makes some sense for retailers to pursue their own system. Read more »
Mobile deals combine location-aware discounts with mobile marketing campaigns. What are the largest pitfalls in this promising space, though? Privacy and security issues must be addressed to assure consumers their purchases are secure and their location is being closely guarded. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Want to know what’s going to happen at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week? Why not ask the organizers? I got on the phone with the GSMA, and here’s what they told me to expect: connectivity in everything, NFC and, of course, LTE. Read more »
With new products from a variety of players like Google and Isis comes a potentially confusing year as the term “mobile wallet” gets thrown around repeatedly. What exactly is the “mobile wallet”? Here are some important definitions for those looking to make a move in the space. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The FinTech Innovation Lab, an accelerator program for financial tech startups, graduated its first class on Friday. This first batch of companies is bringing some impressive ideas to bear on data, analytics and payments and showing there’s room for new approaches in the financial sector. Read more »
Google is bringing Samsung’s Nexus S smartphone to AT&T’s network on July 24 for $99 with a two-year contract. Customers can preorder the handset today online or in a Best Buy store. Why launch a handset that’s a bit behind current hardware? Google Wallet comes to mind. Read more »
Carriers are struggling to address the gap between mobile data usage and revenues even as their networks approach capacity. Here’s how they can innovate to better monetize in the era of the ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The second quarter of 2011 in mobile was all about smartphones, thanks to Google’s Android, Apple’s iOS and mobile data consumption ramping up. In the tablet space, the iPad lacked any real competition, though that dominance will surely fade as more and more alternatives — from Cisco, HP and others — emerge. Elsewhere, location-based marketing finally made some headlines, and the groundwork for near-field communications looks to be finally falling into place. Additional companies in this report include Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft and Research In Motion. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Mobile payments have taken off in the last few years and are now poised to grow from $240 billion this year to $670 billion worldwide in 2015, aided by growing near field communication transactions for physical goods, according to Juniper Research. Read more »
One thing is clear: Investors love Square, the payments company co-founded by Jack Dorsey, the co-creator of Twitter. The veteran venture capital firm of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is leading the $100 million investment in the company that is said to be valued at $1 billion. Read more »
Some of the groundwork is finally being laid for mobile payments, but the industry still has to find ways to convince users to pay for stuff with their phones. For the mobile wallet to catch on, apps will have to do much more than execute transactions. Read more »
Predicting what not to expect in mobile next year is a lot easier than predicting what will happen. You can be sure, for instance, that consumers won’t pay for on-the-go TV next year any more than they have in the past, and that carriers won’t embrace ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Network operators are once again pushing the idea of a “mobile wallet” in an effort to grab a slice of purchases for both virtual and physical goods. But they’d be wise to view themselves as an extension of existing payment systems — not as a ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Network operators are once again pushing the idea of a “mobile wallet” in an effort to grab a slice of purchases for virtual and physical goods. But they would be wise to view themselves as potential extensions of existing payment systems — not replacements of them. Read more »
