Tag: mobile payments

Boston College to receive mobile payments services

PXT Payments, a mobile commerce company based in Massachusetts, has formed a partnership with Boston’s Fenway Sports Management. Through this partnership, PXT Payments’ Looped-in mobile payments technology will be promoted at all upcoming sporting events hosted at Boston College. In return for this promotion, the company will sponsor the schools athletics department, providing funding for new equipment and offering some students modest financial aid  under certain circumstances. Mobile payments are becoming quite popular among sporting events, which may help PXT Payments expand the use of its Looped-in technology.

PXT Payments provides Looped-in application for consumers

Looped-in is available to consumers as a mobile application. The application allows smartphone and tablet users to purchase products using their mobile devices rather than physical currency or credit cards. Products include merchandise sold at sporting events as well as tickets for such events. Those using the application will be able to make mobile payments at Boston College’s Conte Forum and Alumni Stadium.

Boston College may be ideal location to promote mobile commerce

Boston College is considered one of the best places to promote mobile payments. This is because schools generally boast of a large population of young consumers that likely grew up steeped in technology. Indeed, mobile technology is so popular among college students that many rely heavily on their smartphones or tablets to function in daily life. These people have shown openness to the concept of mobile commerce and are more inclined to make mobile payments if they are given the tools to do so, which is where companies like PXT Payments come in.

Mobile payments may be most convenient for sports fans

PXT Payments notes that introducing its Looped-in technology to Boston College may help generate hype for the technology throughout the sporting realm. Mobile payments can be very convenient for consumers that regularly attending sporting events. Mobile commerce systems may, for some, provide a sense of security at these events because consumers are not required to carry physical forms of currency in order to purchase the products they are interested in.

Information about a new system on the Windows Phone platform has just been released involving Zero-Effort.

Microsoft has just released a considerable amount of detail regarding its new system for mobile payments that could considerable improve the appeal of its Windows Phone platform, as it will give smartphone users the ability to make a purchase without any effort at all.

This will allow consumers to buy products or services without ever needing to make a move.

Many of the smartphone manufacturers and other internet giants are taking sizeable steps into the mobile payments ecosystem, such as the payWave from Visa on the Samsung Galaxy 4, and the new Google Wallet making its way through its pilot period in two American cities for several months.

While many of the big players are focusing on NFC technology for mobile payments, Microsoft has looked elsewhere.

Microsoft’s mobile payments strategy was an exploration of how a consumer could make a purchase without having to mess around with the handset at a point of sale. It has labeled the style a “Zero-Effort Payment” (ZEP).

Microsoft Research representative, Sefan Saroiu, one of the team members who was a part of the development of the ZEP mobile payments, explained that this system would give merchants the ability to provide their customers with a more personalized service. For instance, they would be able to provide frequent shopper discounts without the need for the customer to carry a membership or loyalty card.

This mobile payments system functions through the integration of Bluetooth technology, in combination with face recognition technology that is worked right into its gaming system, called Kinect. When a user who is signed up for the service enters a participating store, it is detected by the Bluetooth system. When a customer is ready to pay, the face recognition system identifies him or her.

The Bluetooth system is able to determine that the participating customer has actually entered a store, but it is the face recognition that takes it a step further by identifying the unique individual customer who is at the checkout counter. That said, while the face recognition technology is not accurate enough to provide a completely precise recognition, when combined with the Bluetooth technology, it is capable of narrowing down the individual’s potential identity very tightly.