Author: JT

PayQwiq mobile payments will launch at Tesco this year

| August 10, 2016

The smartphone transaction service will be rolled out across the United Kingdom before the end of 2016.

Tesco has announced that it will be rolling out its PayQwiq mobile payments service across the United Kingdom. Its services will become fully available now that it has undergone its trials successfully.

This mobile payments service is meant to make it faster and easier for customers to complete the checkout process.

The PayQwik mobile payments service lets consumers link credit and debit cards to the app. With this mobile application, they can pay for items purchased online or in store. To complete the transaction, they must scan QR codes displayed on-screen. The application also makes it possible to collect Clubcard points. Therefore, the points card doesn’t need to be scanned separately.

Until now, the PayQwik mobile payments app was available only in London and Edinburgh.

PayQwiq mobile payments - Tesco StoreMoreover, the mobile app could be downloaded only by those with an invitation. That said, its availability will now be broadening to include consumers at 600 stores throughout those two original cities. Stores in Plymouth and Northern Ireland will also be included in this next wave. The app is compatible with Android and iOS smartphones.

This mobile wallet places Tesco in direct competition with Apple Pay and Android Pay within its stores. That said, the PayQwik mobile wallet functions only within Tesco stores so the competition stops there. Among the main reasons it has an advantage over the competition while in-store is that it lets customers use their Tesco Clubcard within the app.

This is appealing as it doesn’t require people to have to make PayQwik mobile payments only to have to fish a plastic loyalty card out of their wallets. Both types of transaction occur automatically and digitally. All that is required in order to complete both processes is the scan of a QR code.

A spokesperson from Tesco Bank explained: “At Tesco, we are always looking to make the shopping experience simpler and easier for customers and that’s why we’ve developed PayQwiq.” So far, customer feedback on the service has been “very positive,” said the Tesco spokesperson.

Microsoft mobile technology news doesn’t look good with 3,000 lay-offs

| August 2, 2016

The smartphone division of the company is experiencing a staggering number of job losses.

Microsoft has made an unhappy mobile technology news announcement of 3,000 upcoming job losses. The majority of the lay-offs are the result of the astounding failure of the Nokia deal and the redundancies it created.

The affected employees will be losing their positions over the next year within that division.

The Microsoft smartphone hardware business and global sales division will experience a massive reduction in size. Moreover, this is only the latest bad mobile technology news the company has issued this year. Back in May, it confirmed that its mobile branch would be downsizing by 1,850 jobs. At that time, Terry Myerson, the vice president of Windows and device said “we’re scaling back, but we’re not out!”

This all stems from the mobile technology news when Microsoft bought the devices and services business at Nokia.

Mobile Technology News - Shocking NewsThe acquisition occurred in 2013. Microsoft made the purchase for $7.1 billion (€5.4 billion). Not only did it buy the devices and business, but it also took in all the associated problems. As it unfolded, it became one of the most disastrous tech acquisitions in history.

Three months after the acquisition closed, Microsoft eliminated 18,000 positions. The majority were from the phone hardware division. This mainly removed employees who had become a part of Microsoft by way of the Nokia buy-out. One year after that point, Microsoft wrote off $7 billion and laid off 7,800 more employees.

This downward spiral continued into May when the vast majority of the feature phone business was sold at a tiny fraction of its purchase price and additional 1,850 jobs were lost.

Now, the mobile technology news trend continues at Microsoft. In the elimination of redundancies, the company is slashing 2,850 jobs. Within a U.S. regulatory filing, the software giant explained: “we periodically evaluate how to best deploy the company’s resources.” Microsoft also said the restructuring would primarily affect the smartphone hardware business and global sales. These latest position eliminations will be in addition to those announced in May and will not include those figures in their total.