Category: NFC Technology

China Mobile calls upon Gemalto to help make payments more secure for Chinese commuters

Gemalto, a leading provider of digital security solutions, has been chosen by China Mobile to protect consumers using mobile payments for mass transit in Beijing, China. The company will be using its UpTeq NFC Multitenant SIMs in order to protect consumer information when they are making payments for transportation services. The SIMs that mobile consumers will be using will come pre-loaded with the Beijing transit application, which is used by more than 22 million commuters every day.

Transportation app will allow consumers to easily make payments for transit services

The application has been a boon for those making daily commutes. The app allows people to pay for transit services using their mobile devices, making the payment process more convenient. China Mobile has been a prominent supporter of mobile payments in recent years and believes that the public transportation space could use more support in its engagement of mobile consumers. Ensuring that payments made from a mobile device are secure could encourage more people to take advantage of the mobile services that the public transit space is offering.

New SIMs will provide mobile devices with NFC capabilities

The UpTeq NFC Multitenant SIMs will be able to host a wide range of mobile services, including couponing and loyalty programs. The SIMs will be able to give most smartphones NFC capabilities, allowing them to interact with NFC-based payment and marketing initiatives. China Mobile users will also be able to make use of NFC-enabled mobile applications that can be downloaded through the organization’s 4G networks.

Improving security may help make mobile commerce more attractive to consumers

Security is one of the top priorities for companies that are beginning to enter the mobile commerce space. Many consumers have been wary of mobile payments because of the lack of security solutions available for new payment platforms. As security increases, more consumers are likely to participate in mobile commerce. Gemalto has significant experience in matters of security and may be able to help promote mobile payments among Chinese consumers.

The latest smartphones from the company finally have near field communication tech, but its uses are limited.

For several releases, the tech universe had been expecting Apple smartphones to include NFC technology, but now that the iPhone 6 has arrived, and it does finally enabled with near field communication, it is being discovered that its uses are exceptionally limited compared to rival devices.

The near field communication technology will be compatible exclusively with Apple Pay.

At the same time that the devices were unveiled, so was the mobile payments service called Apple Pay, which uses NFC technology, also received its first moments in the spotlight. This allows the iPhone to be used in place of a credit or debit card at one of the many places across the country that accept this type of transaction. All that would be required to use the mobile device in this way is to tap it against an NFC-equipped terminal and then use the fingerprint sensor through Touch ID to verify identity and confirm the payment.

However, while other devices use NFC technology for a range of capabilities, this is not the case with the iPhone.

It looks as though Apple is continuing to hold back its use of certain forms of technology that are already becoming rather commonplace in the mobile tech market. For a few years now, other NFC enabled mobile devices have been used for pairing devices, exchanging contacts between smartphones, or even sharing photos and other media files. Tags located in public places such as in shops give consumers the ability to tap their devices and receive information about products or obtain discount coupons that can be redeemed at the checkout counter with another simple tap.

Many of these tasks can be accomplished with other forms of short range communication tech, such as Bluetooth – such as pairing devices, for example, as is the case with the upcoming Apple Watch – but Apple has opted to restrict the use of NFC technology in its devices, at least for now, exclusively to its payments service. This move is reminiscent of the release of Touch ID last year, at which time people had come up with all sorts of potential uses for the way that the fingerprint sensor could be used, only to discover that it was meant only for unlocking the device and conducting a small number of tasks.