Don’t think that wireless NFC tags are just for mobile payments. You can do practically anything with them if you know how to program them with small bits of data. Some free apps make this easy and I’m already on the NFC bandwagon at home. Read more »
Tired of carrying hundreds of business cards? What if you only needed to carry one? That’s the idea behind this Moo card with embedded NFC tag inside it. You just tap it to a phone with NFC-capabilities and it share just about any information you want. Read more »
Barclaycard US is the latest card issuer to back Google Wallet. The company also backs Isis, the mobile payment joint venture between Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile, illustrating that not even the traditional banking companies know yet which mobile payment standard will be successful. Read more »
Sony has been on a quest to climb back into the U.S. handset market, and this month it’s introducing an imaging powerhouse that may help it accomplish that goal. AT&T will start selling Sony’s first U.S. LTE smartphone, the Xperia Ion, on June 24 for $100. Read more »
Ever since the smartphone era began, companies have looked for ways to quickly get information from the offline product world onto the phone. Barcode scanning and QR codes work, but what if we could just use a printed solution readable by our phone’s touchscreen? Read more »
Phones embedded with near-field communications chips are beginning to proliferate, but their uptake is much slower in North America than in Europe and Asia, according to Berg Insight. Of the 30 million NFC handsets sold, roughly 5 million wound up in the hands of North American consumers. 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 »
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 »
A Nokia research project called Nokia Hello leverages wireless technology with Near Field Communications (NFC) chips to help people “speak” to each other. I figured it would be a good solution when speaking to someone in a non-native language (it is), but Nokia suggests another use. Read more »
As 2011 comes to a close, I’m thinking ahead to what mobile technology trends I expect to see in 2012. While I formulate those thoughts for a post later this week, now is a good time to see how I did with my 2011 predictions. Read more »
As our demand for data increases, so too do the number of mobile devices and services. Add to that the infrastructure needed to support such connectivity, and a wide, complex picture of the mobile industry emerges. This report examines the various sectors of the mobile landscape and what the future holds for each. Hardware, cloud services, mobile search, advertising, location-based services and the growing ubiquity of the Internet of Things will all play an important role in the concept of mobility as it shifts and evolves over the next several years. With the help of more than a dozen contributors, GigaOM Pro presents a comprehensive analysis of the companies and trends that will lead us into the next era of mobile. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
By 2015, the worldwide sales of NFC-equipped handsets will reach 263.6 million units, with the cumulative total at more than half a billion compatible devices. This report covers the current landscape for NFC, examines the technology’s different forms of deployment and forecasts its future. It also examines the various deployments of NFC technology — mobile payments, point of purchase, augmented reality — and the challenges businesses, carriers and handset makers face moving forward. Companies mentioned in this report include Google, TapIt, Amazon and NTT DoCoMo. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. 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 »
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 »
When Google discontinued support for QR codes in its Places product earlier this year, many saw it as an early death knell for the barcode scanning technology. But Google’s latest acquisition is evidence that the company may not be completely abandoning QR technology just yet. Read more »
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 »
ViVOtech, an end-to-end provider of near field communication hardware and software, has raised $24 million in a Series C round of funding. The funding highlights the growing momentum behind NFC, which is finally coming together as a rising mobile payment and communications platform. Read more »
Last year, Sony Ericsson dropped Symbian, boldly claiming it would take the top spot in the world for Android device sales. Now that a wireless payment infrastructure exists with Google Wallet, the company is ready to add NFC chips and software from NXP in future handsets. Read more »
Google launched its big push into mobile payments with the introduction of a new payment platform called Google Wallet based NFC technology. The company said it will pair contactless payments with Google Offers to help retailers and merchants strengthen their ties to consumers. Read more »
Google is reportedly planning to jump-start mobile payments with a press event this Thursday, followed by a trial service in five major U.S. cities. Sprint’s Nexus S appears to be the handset of choice; it contains a near field communications chip that works with payment terminals. Read more »
As the U.S. continues to wrangle over wireless mobile payment solutions using NFC chips, the U.K. is moving forward. Today, Orange UK launched QuickTap, a way to pay for purchases at 50,000 retail locations. The right incentives, such as cash back, should help spur consumer adoption. Read more »
AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile are reportedly downsizing plans for a joint near field communication payment network called Isis and are looking to partner now with credit card companies Visa and MasterCard on a more modest mobile wallet offering. Read more »
For many merchants, the idea of NFC as a credit card replacement isn’t that much of an incentive, said Vivotech CEO Mike Mullagh. The real reason to get onboard with NFC is the promise of more one-to-one mobile marketing through NFC-enabled smartphones. 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 »
One major obstacle for NFC technology has been merchant adoption of NFC-enabled point-of-sale terminals. Well, Verifone is reportedly looking to shelve that concern, saying it will include the technology as a standard offering in all of its new payment terminals. Read more »
Square, the mobile payment start-up co-built by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, has taken on $27.5 million in new funding to help it compete in the increasingly competitive mobile payments market. The latest funding comes from Sequoia Capital, giving the start-up a reported valuation of $240 million Read more »
