A rundown of the options for mobile payments

The number of articles on mobile phones and payments in US media has been increasing lately. Here is another one with some excerpts of note:

First, there are two ways of doing it

"Two primary options exist for the payment provider looking to place his tech inside a cell phone: integrate the process with the handset’s software, or simply treat the phone as a carrier for a chip."

Optinon 1:

"In the former, payment information would be stored in the phone’s memory, and consumers would activate a menu on the handset to enable payment. According to Gordon-Lathrop, this motif is attractive because it allows multiple cards to be stored."

Option 2:

"The other approach is to simply place a contactless chip inside the phone’s shell, enabling customers to wave or tap the phone over an enabled POS the same way they would a contactless card. This notion obviously jumps the hurdle of integration with the phone, at the cost of the "multiple cards in one virtual wallet" promise."

Remsik said one possible upshot of this might be the proliferation of interchangeable mobile phone "jackets," which would allow consumers to pop in the contactless chip of their choice, regardless of phone model."

Ther is another way, of course ...

"Tools that promise uniformity and compatibility — Java, for instance — definitely have the potential to tackle this problem, but many phones still will not run Java apps."

But, apparently phones get lost easily, which might (or might not) be a problem, depending on the solution.

"The contactless arena as a whole is grappling with the potential security risks of beaming payment information through the ether, even if it is only a few inches. Putting the transmitter inside a phone raises a few extra eyebrows: Remsik points to data which shows that people are three times more likely to lose a cell phone than a wallet."

I would love to see the actual survey with that data.

Reading barcodes off mobiles

picturephoning.com: SMS barcode revolution kicks off in Ireland: "Once the credit card transaction has been completed a bar code for the appropriate quantity is sent instantly to the customer’s mobile phone. When the customer is boarding an Aircoach vehicle they simply open up the message and swipe the bar code image over a barcode reader beside the driver and the transaction is complete.'"

Reading barcodes off mobiles

Mobile Phone Barcode Name Badge - World First!: "Developed by Sydney registration specialists Info Salons Australia in co-operation with AURA a Sydney telecommunications company, the system is set in motion when intending visitors pre-register online.

'When they submit their registration details, we send them a confirming email and then a barcode by SMS to their mobile phones. When they arrive at the show, they simply need to retrieve the barcode from their Message Inbox and have it scanned at the door,” said Jo-Anne Kelleway, Managing Director of Info Salons Australia."