Tag: passbook

Samsung introduces new mobile commerce application

Samsung has begun showing off its new Wallet mobile application for its line of smartphones. The company has adopted a strong interest mobile commerce recently, and this interest has helped the company dethrone Apple as the leading provider of mobile devices in the world. Consumers share the enthusiasm for mobile commerce that Samsung has been displaying, demanding new applications that can facilitate mobile payments and make it easier to manage bank accounts and shop online.

Wallet to provide digital storage to consumers

Samsung’s Wallet will act in much the same way that other mobile wallets do. The Wallet will be able to store a wide variety of digital information and content, such as financial data and tickets for concerts or public transport. In this way, the Wallet is very similar to Apple’s Passbook. Unlike the Passbook, the Wallet will allow users to participate in mobile commerce in some way, thanks to the NFC capabilities of Samsung’s latest smartphones.

Wallet to make use of QR codes

While the Wallet will leverage NFC to some degree to open up mobile commerce to consumers, the other aspects of the application will be based on barcodes, specifically QR codes. The Wallet can store mobile coupons, airline tickets, and special offers from loyalty programs that can all be accessed through scanning a QR code. Samsung believes that these codes are a simpler way of providing services to consumers rather than having the Wallet rely entirely on NFC technology.

Wallet may be included in new Galaxy S4

Samsung has already lined up an array of partners that will support the Wallet when it is launched. The company is currently preparing for the launch of the new Galaxy S4, which is expected to be released in spring this year. The Wallet may be made available before the launch of the S4, with current speculation suggesting that the application will be available in a matter of weeks rather than months.

Google manages some success in mobile commerce

Mobile commerce continues to be a tricky subject for large companies. Telecommunications and technology companies, as well as financial institutions, are well aware of the potential benefits of involvement in the mobile commerce industry, but many of these companies have had difficulty establishing a foothold witch consumers. The challenges facing these companies has not slowed the expansion of mobile commerce and some have even managed to find some success with their endeavors in the industry. Such is the case with Google.

Apple eyed as potential competitor

Though Google has managed to corner a part of the mobile commerce market with its Google Wallet platform, the company still faces strong competition from other platforms, such as Isis. Now, Google is eyeing what it thinks may be a challenge from an unlikely source: Apple. Apple is currently a very modest player in the mobile commerce field, but could be poised to make a big splash with its Passbook platform, which is designed to be a sort of digital wallet for a user’s information, tickets, coupons, and other content.

Update to Google Search to make it more competitive against Passbook

Though Passbook itself does not support mobile transactions on the same level that Google Wallet does, Google is still poised to beat out its potential competition. Thus, the technology company has launched a new update for its Google Search application. The application is now capable of monitoring a user’s email account to keep track of tickets, such as boarding passes. When the application detects this content, it generates a QR code that can be used for check-ins. This is identical to a feature of the Passbook, but Google takes it a step further by also offering information on nearby stores and activities.

Application boasts of new features

Google has also introduced a new camera search function that acts as a reverse image lookup feature as well as a feature that provides notifications on tracked topics, such as “mobile commerce news.” While the Google Search application will not be able to facilitate mobile payments any time soon, Google believes that providing consumers with yet another form of digital wallet may be what is needed to gain a strong foothold in the realm of mobile commerce.