Flint raises $8 million in funding

Flint Mobile, a company that specializes in mobile payments, has announced that it has raised $8 million in Series B funding. Flint is unlike Square and PayPal in that it uses a mobile device’s camera to conduct mobile transactions rather than a peripheral that can scan credit card data. These peripherals have become a popular alternative to NFC technology, which has long formed the backbone of mobile commerce. By avoiding NFC technology, companies like Flint have been able to make mobile commerce more accessible to a wider range of consumers.

Verizon invests in Flint

Flint has not yet released any information concerning its roadmap for the future, but it is likely that the company will begin working with the Digicel Group, which provided a significant amount of the company’s recent funding. Digicel is a mobile service operator with business primarily in the South Pacific. Digicel has big plans for mobile commerce, but may run into competition with Verizon Communications. Verizon has also invested in Flint, pumping an estimated $2 million into the company.

Mobile operators look for alternatives to NFC

Flint claims that mobile operators appear to favor its approach to mobile payments. Companies investing in mobile commerce have been looking for new payment services and technologies in order to meet the demands coming from consumers. Many consumers are looking for a simple alternative to NFC-based solutions, which are not accessible to those without NFC-enabled devices. Others simple want a secure platform that they can conduct transactions through. Investing in new services helps mobile operators find services that can meet the interests of consumers.

Flint faces staunch competition

Flint is growing in popularity, but there is no shortage of competition in the mobile commerce space. Other firms are looking to promote their own mobile payments platforms and have also been able to attract healthy attention from investors. Even if Flint manages to overcome the opposition of other startups, it will have to compete with larger companies, like PayPal and Google, if it wants to find success.

The new The Snowman and The Snowdog application places a limit to in-app purchasing.

The classic holiday favorite “The Snowman” by Raymond Briggs is now available in digital form, but while it does feature many of the spending components that are standard in mobile gaming, it has taken a unique tack in order to help to curb one of the hottest issues regarding spending while playing the game.

The app is the first one to ever introduce a limit to the amount that can be spent.

This mobile gaming application has been designed to keep in-app spending reasonable by limiting the amount that children are able to spend. The Snowman and the Snowdog has introduced this new feature after a consultation with the government that occurred earlier in 2013 and after hearing about a number of stories in which parents were shocked to discover that their children had run up massive bills while playing games on their smartphones and tablets.

The mobile gaming effort was launched earlier this week in the U.K. by Channel 4, for Android devices, iPhone and iPad.

This app is available for free download and is based on the highly popular Christmas movie. It is also the sequel to last year’s very successful free game that led the British app store downloads in December.

The design of the newest app gives children the ability to spend between £0.99 and £3.99 at a time on virtual snowflakes. Those can be used in the app for customizing their Snowman character or to be able to boost their game play. However, in order to help to reduce the risk of “bill shock” for parents, the total spending has a limit of £20 per player.

According to Colin Macdonald’ the games commissioning editor at Channel 4, “While we had to figure out a way that we could make money from the game, we absolutely could not have anything that might give rise to anyone feeling it was exploitative.” Although limiting the amount of money that can be spent while mobile gaming in a free app is considered to be a form of “commercial suicide”, the company felt the need to place higher priority on responsibility to their customers.