Seeking to ensure continued NFC growth and acceptance, two French companies–contactless chip maker INSIDE Contactless and FIME, a smart card and terminal testing solutions provider–have partnered to speed up the attainment of NFC interoperability. The two companies hope to identify and resolve potential conflicts in NFC devices and develop a process for testing and certifying […]

MasterCard has launched an over-the-air provisioning service enabling issuers to personalize their cardholders’ mobile devices in a one-step process. The new service, Mobile MasterCard PayPass, enables mobile devices to perform payment transactions at merchant locations with PayPass-enabled POS terminals. With mobile phone payments expected to grow tenfold by 2013, according to the latest Juniper 2008 […]

Don Kingsborough, currently CEO of Blackhawk Network but who, earlier in his career spent time at Atari helping to introduce Nintendo to U.S. gamers, has been appointed to the board of directors of Silicon Valley-based ViVOtech, a developer of NFC mobile and contactless payment systems. Kingsborough founded Blackhawk Network in 2001. Since that time, the […]

Between August and September, 2008, Aberdeen surveyed 180 companies to outline the implications and trends related to proximity mobile payments. Specific emphasis was placed on mobile Near Field Communications, an advanced contactless form factor, and mobile wallet software applications. Background According to 63% of companies surveyed in the October 2007 contactless ROI report, Cashing in […]

Sony Corp. has gained a major supplier of its FeliCa ISO 18092 standard contactless cards outside Asia, tapping Illinois-based Versatile Card Technology as its North American manufacturer. “FeliCa represents a major improvement in the flexibility, speed and security of transactions with respect to the traditional ISO 14443 based card technologies now available in the U.S.,” […]

A partnership between Mobile Distillery, a provider of mobile application production tools and testing services, and Twinlinx, a developer of dedicated hardware for NFC-compliant phones, has led to a prototype solution that could potentially turn Bluetooth-enabled handsets into full-featured NFC devices. Twinlinx, co-founded by former Gemalto and INSIDE Contactless executive Jacek Kowalski, selected Mobile Distillery […]

The future of contactless lies in a convergence of payments, access, identity and transit among other applications. That’s INSIDE Contactless’s view, which it intends to highlight at the upcoming CARTES and IDentification show in Paris Nov. 4-6 with its “A Converging Contactless Life,” presentations. “INSIDE sees a perfect storm brewing where the next wave of […]