Tag: nfc mobile

Interest group to tackle issues concerning NFC technology

NFC technology was once the cornerstone of mobile commerce. The technology helped bring mobile payments into the limelight because of its ability to facilitate quick data transfer from one device to another. While NFC technology is still a focus in some areas of mobile commerce, the industry is beginning to move away from the technology because of its relatively low adoption rate and concerns regarding its security. The NFC Forum, a trade association that developers standards for the use of NFC technology, has created an interest group that aims to explore the ways the technology can be used in the realms of mobile payments and transportation.

NFC Forum aims to promote use of technology for transportation and mobile payments

The NFC Forum has been promoting the capabilities of NFC technology, especially when used in mobile commerce, for more than a decade. The organization has established many of the standards that govern the use of the technology today. The NFC Forum has been seeing the position of the technology in the mobile commerce realm steadily diminish and has been looking for ways to encourage the continued use of the technology as a medium for mobile payments.

NFC could be very useful in the realm of transportation

The new interest group established by the NFC Forum aims to discover new ways to use NFC technology for mobile payments and for transportation. In terms of mobile commerce, the use of the technology is fairly straightforward, but the group will focus on finding ways to improve the efficiency and security of NFC-based mobile payments. The technology does have some promise when it comes to transportation, as it can be used as a storage medium for electronic tickets for various forms of public transportation.

NFC allows for use of electronic tickets

Using NFC technology, a consumer can store electronic tickets on their mobile device. When they are ready to board a plane, for instance, they can use their mobile device to present their boarding pass, removing the need for physical tickets. NFC has a variety of uses, but there exists a lack of NFC-enabled devices that enable the widespread adoption of this technology. The interest group will focus on highlighting the capabilities of NFC technology in order to encourage its adoption among consumers, businesses, and other parties.

MasterCard is predicting that by 2018, the use of smartphones and tablets for purchasing will be widespread.

MasterCard has just released its latest predictions regarding mobile payments, which have shown that it believes that the market will become mainstream by the year 2018.

Not coincidentally, this announcement coincided with the unveiling of its new MasterPass product.

The new MasterCard MasterPass mobile payments product will be launching later on in 2013 and will allow consumers to tap, touch, and click their smartphones in order to complete transactions to make purchases. This service also supports NFC technology, tags, QR codes, and other forms of checkout within a brick and mortar shop.

MasterCard is hoping that this will help to move past the struggle mobile payments has seen until now.

Jorn Lambert, the MasterCard Europe group head for emerging payments, has stated that the hope is that after years of experiencing false starts, the habits of consumers are now changing, meaning that this year will be the start of mobile payments truly gong mainstream. He explained that “For me, the train has left the station on this. Consumer behaviour around tagging and the like is becoming more and more mainstream.”

He has been a part of the development of the mobile payments service which is predicted to be launched later this year. He explained that the company’s data is indicating that within three to five years, this will be one of the methods that consumers will expect to have available to them for making payments. He said that this will occur with or without the credit card giant, so it is vital for that company to launch this MasterPass product.

Lambert also revealed that he felt strongly about the rumors that have long been circulating about the first steps that Apple and Google will be making into the mobile payments market in Europe, and that this will be important to speeding up the pace of adoption by consumers. He stated that he would be very surprised if either of those companies chose to create its own acceptance brand and created the structures for managing the risk in the credit ecosystem that are currently developed by the industry itself.

However, he is hopeful that they will move forward with mobile payments as this will be an important catalyst.