Mobile Marketing and Commerce Strategies » Enabling Technologies

Mobile payments are the darling of the tech media at the moment, but with so much hype, real insight can only come from the innovators who are shaping this new industry. This report gathers perspectives from 10 companies that are at the cutting edge of the new wave in payments, providing directional clarity for the way the industry can be expected to evolve--not just relating to mobile payments, but in terms of the way that we will pay for goods and services overall. 

It seems like BlackBerry is ready to take the leap into mobile money; the company is reportedly trialing a mobile money transfer app that's integrated into its BlackBerry Messenger service.

The volatility marking the mobile industry is finally beginning to ease, and as the dust begins to settle, mobility’s true winners—and losers—will slowly emerge across the entire ecosystem, from devices, to applications, networks and more. Now that many players know the hand they’ve been dealt, we see 2013 as the year when smart players place their bets and position themselves for long-term success.

Yankee Group estimates the mobile money marketplace will account for U.S.$1 trillion in revenue worldwide by 2015. Players looking for a piece of this lucrative opportunity should focus on flexible solutions that aren't wedded to a single technology paradigm while keeping an eye on the future when NFC, retail data integration and connected devices will come to the fore.

Citing an increase in popularity of its N-Mark, its universal symbol for near field communications (NFC) connectivity, the NFC Forum announced it is now making the N-Mark available to software developers and device makers.

Apple watchers were somewhat disappointed by the company's latest product intro. Instead of the much-anticipated iPhone 5, Apple simply added a slew of new capabilities--including 1080p HD video, the new iOS 5 and even a personal voice-controlled digital assistant called Siri--to a new iteration it's calling the iPhone 4S.

Boston-based SCVNGR, the parent of mobile money firm LevelUp, announced it closed a U.S.$12 million round of Series D funding aimed at fueling nationwide expansion of its service.

Apple rolled out new capability for its iPhone Apple Store app that lets shoppers in its stores purchase small items and have them charged to their iTunes account. Shoppers simply use the iPhone's camera to take a picture of the bar code on the item they want, and they can purchase the item on the spot and walk out.

NFC can play a key role in non-payment initiatives in a variety of end-user verticals, including mHealth, education, security and more.

Perhaps Apple is getting into the near field communications (NFC) game after all. According to a recent patent filing, Apple is working on enabling consumers to purchase songs and gift them to others simply by tapping NFC-enabled devices togetherâ??despite the fact Apple has yet to roll out an NFC-enabled device of its own.

QR codes will be trumped by near field communications (NFC) solutions in terms of usability, security and capacity. However, NFC is far from prolific today, and we forecast QR codes will fill a necessary gap in the interim. 

Apple used its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) to not only intro its latest mobile OS, iOS 6, but also to offer a key entrant in the mobile wallet wars: Passbook.

Google Wallet, while based on NFC, is really focused on a far bigger market: location-based advertising.

NFC can bring users to mobile wallet technology, but only if the process is both easy and fun, Google's main evangelist says.

Consumers are leery of mobile transactions, due primarily to security concerns. But NFC--with its strong security and ease of use--could change that.

This early NFC deployment underscores the wealth of possibilities inherent in broad-based NFC technology.

Mobile operators are focused primarily on NFC as a mechanism for easing mobile payments and locking in subscribers.

NFC and EMV won't take off in the U.S. until 2015 at the earliest.

In a week filled with new releases, Boston-based LevelUp doesn't want to be left out. The mobile payment company has started releasing new payment terminals with NFC capability.

Japan's mobile marketing industry has been using QR codes for years, but NFC technology is starting to give the codes a run for its money.

NFC is starting off slowly,  but it is set for explosive global growth

Who says you need an NFC-capable phone to make mobile payments? U.K. bank Barclays is rolling out PayTag, an NFC-based sticker users can slap onto the back of any phone to gain the ability to make mobile payments via NFC.

Some mobile money players realize cross-platform solutions are the key.

Google's NFC wallet goes beyond payments.

Despite muted uptake, we believe NFC will be the core enabling technology for mobile payments once it finds its stride. In fact, Yankee Group forecasts NFC-based mobile payments will reach parity with QR code-based mobile payments in mid-2014 and will surpass QR codes for mobile payments globally by 2015.

It's deja vu all over again. Hot on the heels of the bubble-bursting news that the iPhone 5 does not support NFC, Jefferies analyst Peter Misek suggests the iPhone 5S will surface in June or July 2013 and likely have NFC. Stifling yawns and general bemusement, I ask: Why is the industry so obsessed with this mythical creature and will it ever happen?

Mobile money players that put all their faith (and investment) in one technology over another are risking failure for no reason. Smart players must adopt technology agnosticism to future-proof and succeed in this highly volatile marketplace.

This week came the revelation that Microsoft has been quietly working on an NFC wallet. But with marginal penetration for their devices, will this matter to the payment industry?

News from Apple's recent Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) sent some seismic ripples through the mobile money industry. Could Apple just have pounded the final nails in the coffin for Google Wallet and Isis?

Last week's Perspective, in which we conclude NFC is far from the next Betamax, sparked some lively debate across the blogosphere. This week, we feel the need to respond and reaffirm our position.

A recent Yankee Group survey of key payment industry decision-makers finds over a third ready to relegate NFC for mobile money to also-ran status, much like Sony's old proprietary Betamax in the VCR wars. We say not so fast.

Should Apple's next iPhone come enabled with NFC--as many expect--it will turn the mobile payment world on its head because we foresee Apple utilizing the technology in one particularly groundbreaking way--extending iTunes payments to the physical world.