Mercator Advisory Group has launched a new report predicting the mobile payments market will soon become “war zone” fought over by mobile operators, handset manufacturers, payment industry heavyweights, and Silicon Valley giants. Caught in the middle will be merchants, who will have to choose which side they’re on – i.e., which of the many services […]

Google has officially released the first version of its Google Wallet app to Sprint. According to Google’s blog, the app will be delivered to all Sprint Nexus S 4G phones through an over-the-air update. As a bonus, early Wallet adopters will be rewarded with a $10 free to use on their Google Prepaid Card. Additionally, […]

Tyfone has signed a deal with AboMem Technology Corp., a memory products manufacturer from Taiwan, to bring Tyfone’s SideTap microSD NFC solution to the People’s Republic of China. As per the deal, Abomen will manufacture and service Tyfone’s SideTap products, as well as distribute them to consumers throughout China via AboMem’s established network. According to […]

The Smart Card Alliance has announced the launch of a new white paper examining and comparing the different approaches to the burgeoning mobile payments market in the U.S. “The Mobile Payments and NFC Landscape: A U.S. Perspective” provides an overview of the state of the market and evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of using NFC, […]

Collisannounced the debut of its Mobile Test Center during the NFC World Congress this week in Nice, France. According to Collis, the center is designed to provide “one-stop-shop” testing services to every stakeholder in the NFC ecosystem, with the main goal of achieving a standard that will enabled widely accepted and interoperable NFC-Trusted Service Manager […]

Acer, a multinational IT and electronics corporation based in Taiwan, has announced the launch a new entry-level NFC smart phone for the French market, the E320 Liquid Express. The new handset will run on Android’s 2.3.3 Gingerbread OS, and will look and function much like Acer’s Liquid E (pictured). Features include a 3.5-inch HVGA display, […]

PayPal has revealed its plan to ‘re-imagine’ the way people shop by enabling payments anytime, anywhere with any device, according to the company’s blog. The new system is designed to affect the entire “shopping lifecycle” – starting with location-based mobile advertising and ending with mobile payments at the point of sale. Customers can also scan […]

Turkcell has some new developments leveraging NFC technology, according to the Wall Street Journal, which was recently given a glance inside the company’s research center outside of Istanbul. The Turkish teleco, which boasts some 33.5 million subscribers, has figured out a way to fit up to 11 different bank accounts and charge cards onto the […]

BMO Bank of Montreal has announced that it will become the first bank in Canada to launch MasterCard’s Mobile PayPass Tag for NFC payments. BMO customers can attach the tag to their mobile phone to make contactless purchases at the point of sale by simply tapping the phone against a PayPass reader. Once the purchase […]

Rabobank and Albert Heijn (AH) have announced the launch of an NFC payments pilot at the ‘AH to go’ convenience store in the Amsterdam WTC. Dubbed ‘Mijn ID,’ the new service uses NFC stickers that are attached to the customer’s phone, which link to the user’s Rabobank Minitix wallet enabling contactless payments at the point […]