Tag: nfc mobile payment

The marketplace is rocked by the shocking news that a major player has dropped out.

The CEO of VeriFone, Doug Bergeron, has stunned the direct-to-micromerchant mobile payments world with the announcement that it is stepping out of that marketplace following unprofitable results from its Sail service.

The point-of sale provider’s mcommerce news came as a surprise to the majority of the industry.

As VeriFone had dedicated a great deal of last year and much of this year on the promotion of the growth of mobile payments services, the decision that the company has now made to remove itself from that direct-to-micromerchant space has caused many heads to spin. The announcement was made during the most recent quarterly conference call.

The CEO released the mobile payments news that the company is stepping down.

During the call, Bergeron stated that Sail, its own mobile payments service, has been unprofitable. This program had been giving small businesses the ability to use smartphones and tablets to accept transactions through debit and credit cards. He said that “Customer acquisition costs, either through search engines or TV advertising, cannot and will never justify the razor thin margins produced by merchants with infrequent volumes and extremely high attrition.”

The NFC technology community has also been left blinking in surprise, as it had been looking toward that company to propel forward its adoption, particularly after the iPhone 5 was released without its capabilities.

Bergeron described the mobile payments program at VeriFone as a failure and is now causing many of the other players in the industry to take a second look at their own potential for profitability. This is particularly the case after the CEO questioned the ability of the environment to be profitable at all. The company has announced that all of its assets from that space will now be sold off.

He explained that he felt it is possible to see similar thoughts among the competition as their businesses models are shifted toward wallets services. It is his belief that the only mobile payments players who will be able to survive “this fundamentally challenging business model” will be those who are capable of offering micro merchants other services, as well.

Qualcomm continues to show strong support for NFC technology

Qualcomm, a leading developer of computer chips and mobile technology, has announced that its subsidiary, Qualcomm Atheros, has introduced a new NFC solution that could have promising implications for a wide range of mobile devices. Qualcomm has been showing increasing interest in NFC technology recently. The company recently upgraded its membership within the NFC Forum, a trade group working to provide standards for the use of NFC technology. The company sees a great deal of promise in NFC technology that extends well beyond mobile commerce.

NFC continues to be linked to mobile commerce

NFC technology is well known for establishing a strong foundation for mobile commerce. Indeed, most mobile commerce initiative rely heavily on the technology in order to facilitate business with consumers. The technology is capable of turning a mobile device into a payment platform, thus allowing consumers to participate in mobile commerce. NFC technology can be used for much more than mobile transactions, and Qualcomm has been working to make the technology available to other industries.

New chip offers promising features

Qualcomm Atheros has developed a new NFC solution that consumes much less energy than traditional NFC chips. The chip, called the QCA 1990, is compatible with most cutting edge mobile technologies and complies with the standards of the NFC Forum. The QCA 1990 is designed to consume as little energy as possible, thus it does not present any significant strain on the battery of a mobile device. Qualcomm notes that the chip will also help make wireless communications and data exchange more efficient. This includes mobile payments.

Chip to see limited use throughout 2013

Qualcomm plans to make the QCA 1990 available to a limited number of customers by the first quarter of 2013. This will help the company determine if any significant changes need to be done to the chip to prepare it for wider commercialization. By the third quarter of 2013, Qualcomm expects that the QCA 1990 will be in the hands of large companies around the world.