ViVOtech Inc., a pioneer in contactless payments and near-field communication (NFC) technology, disclosed Monday that it sold its card-reader business to ID Tech, a manufacturer of smart card readers and point-of-sale hardware and identity-verification products. The subject of reports last week that it was laying off people and possibly going …
Read More »Google Wallet 2.0: Now Open to All Cards, But Can It Attract Users?
Google Inc. on Wednesday announced an overhaul of its struggling mobile wallet product that the online search giant hopes will make the product more attractive to consumers and banks alike. Indeed, a key feature of the new Google Wallet is that is now open to any credit or debit card …
Read More »Mobile Payments Take a Big Jump in Popularity, Survey Finds
The subject of vast amounts of hype, mobile payments are in fact becoming reality for many consumers. New findings from IDC Financial Insights show that 33.9% of consumers have made purchase on a mobile phone, up from only 19.3% in a similar survey last year. Mobile payments will further penetrate …
Read More »Google’s Android Shipments Among Hopeful Signs for NFC
Google Inc.’s disclosure last week that 1 million Android-powered devices are now shipping each week with near-field communication (NFC) capability has renewed industry speculation about when NFC-based mobile payments will become a mainstream service. The shipment figure, a rare disclosure from the tightlipped Web search giant, came with weekly activation …
Read More »MasterCard Proposes an Industry-Wide Group To Spur EMV Payments
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Read More »Tyfone Announces Patents for Design that Reduces NFC Antennas for Mass Production
Tyfone Inc. on Monday announced it has been awarded a pair of U.S. patents that the Portland, Ore.-based company says should make it easier to manufacture in commercial quantities key elements for mobile payments based on near-field communication (NFC) technology. NFC is a two-way contactless technology that allows, for example, …
Read More »Weeks Away from Launch, Isis Announces Its First Batch of Merchants
For months, the carrier-backed Isis mobile-payments initiative could boast just one accepting merchant, the Utah Transit Authority in Salt Lake City, one of two cities it plans to launch its service in this summer. That changed on Tuesday with the announcement that Isis has signed some 50 retail companies both …
Read More »Late to the Wallet Wars, MasterCard Unveils a Service It Touts As Open, Flexible
Nearly a year after major U.S. rivals introduced mobile wallets, MasterCard Inc. officially entered the market on Monday with a service that aims to trump competing products by being open to a wide range of payment brands and by offering tools that can let third parties develop their own digital …
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