MobileLime solution using RFID

MobileVillage: PDAs, Handhelds, Mobile Computing & Wireless Technology for Business: "MobileLime's new quick-scan features only work with an RFID compatible phone -- currently only the Nokia 3220, though more such phones are expected in the future. The user just clicks the lime from the phone's menu screen, choose the credit card they want to use and wave their phone over the contactless reader that's integrated with the point of sale system at checkout. For added security, the user can configure a PIN required to complete each transaction."

Nokia, Motorola Show Cellular-VoIP Phones

Chicago Tribune | Nokia, Motorola Show Cellular-VoIP Phones:

The new Nokia 6136 and Motorola A910 handsets introduced at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona can connect to the Internet via WiFi, rather than Bluetooth, to make cut-price calls from the home, office or public hotspot. A handful of similar phones have been announced by smaller manufacturers in recent months.

Do such phones and the push for WiFi-based VoIP present a great opportunity for m-payments? The WiFi link can be used as extremely fast local communication in a physical POS and for virtual POS transactions the WiFi will make the user experience extremely fast with negligible network latency.

Are m-payments a threat to PayPal and Google Wallet?

PayPal is the dominant Third Party Payer for e-commerce (web purchasing using a web browser) especially since their acquisition of Verisign's gateway business. Google is also getting into this space (see "PayPal Prepares For a Challenge From Google" from the Wall Street Journal).

Since PayPal's inception, the user experience has been fundamentally the same: a consumer uses her desktop/laptop computer to enter her PayPal username/password and make a payment, without the need to share the payment instrument information with the merchant. Of course PayPal has made enormous strides to strengthen its offering: (1) "integration" with merchants has made the flow of the user experience easier (but fundamentally the same as before), and (2) fraud detection and prevention provides peace of mind to its users (although such protection is a requirement for adoption since credit card companies offer it too).

The question is whether m-payments, i.e., payments using a mobile phone, will be a threat to e-commerce modes of payment like PayPal or the upcoming Google Wallet. The mobile introduces a new payment modality that can easily extend (at least in the case of what Motorola announced, or in the case of PayWi) to online payments. Once you use the mobile for payments, the distinction between physical POS payments and virtual POS payments (PayPal's core business) is rather minor to the user. At the same time, for the consumer, the mobile can bring convenience, ease of use and a sense of ownership of the process (since consumers use their phone, which is always with them). Would that be a disruptive competition for online payment providers?

NFC-enabled mobile phones trial

Accordint to NFC-enabled mobile phones trial, the details are:

• Phones by Nokia
• Network carrier is Cingular
• NFC chip by Philips
• •Credit Card by Chase with Visa USA supporting
  
• •Terminals by Vivotech
• The merchant is Atlanta Hawks & Thrashers
• The consumer is the season ticket holders who can use it to pay at concession stands of Philips Arena

It is a complicated dance to get all the parties together for this type of m-payments.

M-payments with a J2ME application

The push for m-payments with a downloadable application has a lot to do with the push for mobile broadband services by the carriers and the deployment of mobile broadband networks in order to support such services. Carriers are enticing users to use such services which means that users become more familiar with downloading things into the mobile and at the same time (thanks to faster mobile networks) the user experience is faster and more pleasant.

As a result, according to M:Metrics (http://www.mmetrics.com/) a company that generates mobile market data,. 30.7 % (2.4 M users) of owners of the top ten multimedia mobile phones have accessed mobile applications or downloaded mobile content (that percentage is almost 50% for RAZR owners).

Mobile Person-to-Person payments

TextPayMe to challenge PayPal with a SMS based solution.

Motorola's M-Wallet: mobile payments with a J2ME application

Motorola seems to get into this, with a software solution and a downloadable application:

The M-Wallet service will come in the form of a downloadable application, compatible with not only Motorola handsets, but also handsets from other manufacturers, and even PDA's. Initially, the M-Wallet system will only allow banking transactions such as on line bill payments, funds transfers, and purchases through participating retailers such as airlines.

Also, see the Chicago tribune article on M-Wallet

Mobile payments with a downloadable application from PayWi

PayWi http://www.paywi.com. is demoing a solution with a downloadable app, no user info stored on phone, 5-digit PIN. See their demo from DEMO06 and check the press release.