Tag: mobile payments

As the company battles to survive and rebuild its relevance, transactions are the new strategy.

As BlackBerry desperately attempts to remain afloat and recreate itself into a position of relevance in the technology world, this Canadian handset maker is now placing a considerable focus on mobile payments as a new major element of its overall strategy.

While the market is currently clearly dominated by Android and iOS devices, BlackBerry isn’t giving up.

The company has now announced its intentions to become considerably more aggressive in the highly competitive and rapidly moving mobile payments environment. It has also confirmed a new three year agreement in which it has now entered with EnStream LP, which is a smartphone transactions joint venture that is owned by Bell, Rogers, and TELUS, the largest wireless carriers in Canada.

The agreement is to provide a secure mobile payments transaction services platform for Canadian banks and consumers.

This agreement will give EnStream the ability to leverage the infrastructure at BlackBerry in order to be able to give a range of mobile operators and financial institutions the capability to provision sensitive credit and debit card data into any NFC technology enabled smartphone.

BlackBerry released a statement that said that “Today the mobile payments space is primed for growth.” It used data that had been produced by Gartner in order to back this up, showing that it has been predicted that the total value of the transactions that will be completed through the use of smartphone technology will rise from where it had been in 2012, at $35 billion, to reach $173 billion by the close of 2017. That represents a tremendous 31 percent compound annual growth rate.

This forecast also includes the purchase of tickets and merchandise, as well as of bill payments. That said, it does not include airtime top-ups or funds that are sent from person to person.

BlackBerry’s statement went on to further explain its position that “Supporting mobile payments reinforces BlackBerry’s ability to provide unique services that help enterprise customers deploy secure mobile solutions that help promote productivity among their workforce and drive new revenue streams.”

Mobile commerce platforms are beginning to be held to a higher standard

Mobile commerce may be growing in popularity, but that also means that it is coming under more aggressive scrutiny. Consumers are becoming less inclined to accommodate mobile platforms that are inherently flawed and lack appropriate security and convenience features. As such, a growing number of mobile payment platforms that had sought success in the mobile field are beginning to suffer from the fact that many consumers are simply no longer willing to justify their use of faulty products.

Large platforms manage to overcome some of the more serious issues plaguing mobile commerce

Large mobile platforms like Isis and Google Wallet have managed to sidestep some scrutiny due to their strong backing from major companies and the fact that they have either avoided falling prey to serious flaws or fixed their flaws in early stages of their launch. Smaller platforms, however, are finding it difficult to establish traction with consumers. Some of the platforms come from retailers and other businesses that are eager to enter into the mobile commerce space. This eagerness has produced some lackluster mobile payments services that have not done well among consumers.

Report highlights ambitious platforms that solve real problems

Platforms from small organizations are not doomed to fail, of course. A recent report from Kristina Yee of M4 Associates, highlights five platforms that could find success in the mobile space. Cardis is noted in the report as being capable of tackling the problem of microtransactions. Cardis aims to allow merchants to offer goods at a low price to consumers by reducing transaction fees. Bitpay is another service that aims to create a bridge between digital and physical currencies without attempting to make physical currencies obsolete.

Smaller organizations are feeling the need to resolve problematic issues

Small organizations are beginning to understand that they need to take steps to address real problems t hat exist in the mobile space rather than simply make mobile commerce more available. These organizations are beginning to focus on improving mobile commerce security and accessibility while also providing solutions that resolve some of the issues that exist in traditional commerce.