AT&T yesterday announced its intention to make a foray into mobile payments. This is not a surprise, as predictions seem to indicate CSPs would be wise to at least dabble.  By 2015, 1.4 billion people will be using mobile wallets, according to the Edgar Dunn Co. Global Payments Survey. That’s pretty substantial, and seems reasonable as making smart phones mobile wallets seems like a smart idea. But will credit card-obssessed North Americans ever “leave home without it” in terms of their plastic?

 

I think it depends on who the ultimate “owner” of the experience is. AT&T Verizon and T-Mobile all show ambition in this area, but so too do the banks, credit card companies, merchants and Internet payors like PayPal. Some in that mix we would trust, and others maybe not.

 

In some credit-challenged countries, credit cards are pretty much non-existent and the phone is the payment mechanism of choice, but in the U.S., it’s more about convenience for “unbanked” individuals like teens, and those who want to make impulse buys or do P2P convenience payments.

 

Here, it would be more convenient for most, it seems, if mobile payments were facilitated by the mobile operator, as the use of credit cards and other payment methods can be cumbersome and feel less secure than just swiping a phone or punching in a cell phone number as a unique identifier so that a charge could be generated on a phone bill.

 

AT&T and Verizon are making deals with the likes of BilltoMobile and Boku, and T-Mobile with Google, in preparation, and vendors are also making strides, as with like Alcatel-Lucent’s global hosting services for mobile operators wanting to enable person-to-person payment, remote ticketing, and mobile commerce services. There’s also potential seen by foreign companies, such as First Data Corp. (working with South Korea-based SK C&C Co. Ltd) to collaborate in the United States, Canada and Mexico for mobile payments.

 

And in Canada, Bell, Rogers, and TELUS have come together to form EnStream for Zoompass, which now allows free P2P money transfers and what they envision as a “cashless society.”

 

With all this momentum, it will be interesting to see if men no longer have to stuff wallets into their back packets or women to carry their purses when leaving the door. It would make for more convenience, but just what security or performance issues await if this hits critical mass?

Source: Connected Planet

Gemalto has announced the launch of its new PROX DUTM smart card reader for physical and logical access control.

According to Gemalto, the dual-interface reader supports a host of applications using both contactless and contact technologies, including employee corporate badge, electronic identity, health care, retail and mass transit ticketing.

Wouldn't it be cool to use your mobile phone to get into your dorm room or to your office building??


Read more here

Yes, I know, I know.
You are already tired of all these mobile-commerce product related revenue projections and all the numbers.

But I'm just putting this here for the sake of record.
What I found interesting here from Juniper Research is their comment on mobile VAS;

... the increasing utilization of in-app billing to enable incremental revenues from additional mobile content will see value-added services (VAS) providing the dominant revenue stream by 2011.

Original news from RCRWireless Unplugged