“Relationships with all four payment networks means that with Isis-enabled phones and payment terminals in place, merchants and consumers will have ubiquity and freedom of choice when it comes to payment network acceptance,” says the company. More
Out-of-house (OOH) media company RMG Networks, which unveiled an NFC-enabled advertising network in April, is in talks with banks about an initial public offering (IPO) to raise more than US$250m, Bloomberg reports:... More
A survey of 1,036 US adult consumers, conducted by StrategyOne on behalf of Verifone, has found that almost twice as many are interested in using mobile payments if the service also includes a way to get discounts and coupons on their phones... More
Singapore’s Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), the government agency tasked with implementing a national NFC infrastructure for Singapore, is demonstrating a number of “rich mobile NFC services” at the imbX tradeshow in Singapore... More
CorFire, the American arm of Korean NFC specialist SK C&C, and US prepaid card provider InComm are working together on a mobile payments and offers service that would compete with Isis and Google Wallet, Bloomberg reports:... More
“Larry and Eric personally convinced me” to make the move to Google, Osama Bedier, the company’s VP of payments, has told NFC World as he set out Google’s commitment to building an NFC platform that is open to all — and revealed that Google Wallet will eventually be able to hold keys, ID credentials and driving licenses. More
Korean coffee shop chain Caffé Bene has become the first merchant to introduce an NFC-based coupon system that provides customers with a loyalty ‘stamp’ each time they visit, Korea Times reports... More
The level of positive responses to a new survey of US consumer attitudes to NFC mobile payments represents a “significant volume… beyond the level we’d call early adopters”, says Compete. More
Korean mobile network operators, card issuers, consumer electronics manufacturers and government organisations have formed the Grand NFC Korea Alliance with the aim of creating a US$1bn business opportunity and more than 5,000 jobs. More
News in brief from the NFC world and beyond: M-Pesa revenues soar • Google Offers trial gets underway • Tyfone expands team • NXP’s partner programme • SVB picks EMV • British consumers ‘not comfortable’ with location-based services • SCM launches plug-in NFC reader • Elephant Talk to unveil NFC mobile wallet platform • and more… More
Google has announced Google Wallet, Google Offers and a Google Prepaid Card, in partnership with MasterCard, Citi, First Data and Sprint. More
The internet giant is set to announce its NFC mobile payments strategy at noon on 26 May in New York. Here are the key things to look for to work out if the company’s strategy will succeed — and what it means for the payments industry, the mobile network operators, phone manufacturers, the firm’s competitors and the future of Google’s own advertising business. More
The NFC joint venture between AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile has fundamentally changed the way it plans to bring NFC to market. But that doesn’t mean Isis is scaling back, the company’s Jaymee Johnson has told NFC World. In fact, he says, “we are pretty drastically accelerating the scope of what we are bringing to market.” More
Google is set to launch an NFC mobile payments service in conjunction with mobile network operator Sprint on May 26, according to a Bloomberg news report. More
Fourteen US and Canadian banks have signed up for the launch later this year of a multi-platform digital wallet that can be used for e-commerce, m-commerce and mobile contactless transactions and includes mobile payment, NFC and coupon capabilities. More
News in brief from the NFC world and beyond: Twitter and Docomo add ‘touch and follow’ • Doubletwist shares songs with NFC • Airtag offers P2P loyalty • Lifera and Taztag tie up • Lockitron opens doors with NFC • DPT unveils NFC-enabled car park pay machine • SK C&C USA rebrands as CorFire • Bayer puts antennas into decorative films • Mobey Forum expands • and much more… More
A poll of 17,000 UK consumers has revealed high levels of readiness for NFC services among certain demographics and details of the kind of services they are most keen to use the technology for. More
News in brief from the NFC world and beyond: US files lawsuit against Verifone/Hypercom deal • iPhone 5 unlikely to support NFC payments, says analyst • ‘Paper’ phone unveiled • Vivotech adds NFC to mag stripe terminals • Hashable adds NFC to contacts app • Sequent raises funds • Connecthings invests in Lifera • and more… More
McDonald’s will have installed contactless point-of-sale terminals in all its restaurants in the UK by the end of this month, Mark Fabes, the fast food giant’s UK IT director, has revealed... More
A new NFC stack from Merchant360 will allow POS terminals to be turned from simple card payments devices into multi-functional NFC access points that retailers can use to process a wide range of emerging mobile payments services, marketing and advertising solutions and even social networking services. More