Experts may well have proclaimed 2012 to be the Year of Mobile Payments, what with digital wallets and other product introductions proliferating seemingly by the day, but at least some researchers are starting to ask a key question: Do consumers really want mobile payments? According to preliminary data, the answer …
Read More »Eye on Mobile: Square Enhances Square Register; Isis Enlists Terminal Makers
n Square Inc. kept up the pressure on the traditional merchant-acquiring industry on Monday by introducing a souped-up version of its iPad app for brick-and-mortar merchants called Square Register with enhanced business-management functions. Meanwhile, the Isis mobile-payments venture announced it has struck deals with the major U.S. point-of-sale terminal makers …
Read More »VeriFone Isn’t Losing Sleep Over Competition From Upstart Square
n n Competition from Square? No problem, according to VeriFone Systems Inc. chief executive Douglas G. Bergeron. n “We’ve had competitors for 30 years,” Bergeron said in response to an analyst’s inquiry about how he sees the competitive risk to VeriFone, the leading U.S.-based point-of-sale terminal maker, from Square Inc., …
Read More »Merchant Group Lays Plans for Retailer-Controlled Mobile Payments, With or Without NFC
Dissatisfied with the current crop of mobile-payments systems from tech companies, cell-phone providers, card networks and banks, a group of U.S. retailers is embarking on its own plan to bring smart-phone payments to their customers. The merchants stress that their venture will not necessarily be based on near-field communication (NFC), …
Read More »Home Depot Starts National Rollout of PayPal POS Payments to Almost 2,000 Stores
The Home Depot Inc. on Tuesday started rolling out a point-of-sale payment system that will let customers pay with their PayPal accounts at all of the home-improvement retailer’s almost 2,000 U.S. stores. The rollout comes just seven weeks after the two companies unveiled a five-store pilot in the San Francisco …
Read More »Isis Announces Its First Issuers As It Readies for Two-City Pilot This Summer
In a move that could indicate a thaw in the long cold war between banks and wireless carriers in the mobile-payments business, the carrier-controlled Isis venture on Monday announced a trio of major banks are the first to sign on as issuers on its platform. Indeed, with the Isis wallet …
Read More »Square Tries To Hail a New York Cab Deal
Merchant processor Square Inc. is seeking a piece of the booming payment card business in New York City taxicabs, a market that is currently the exclusive domain of VeriFone Systems Inc. and another company that provide TV content and card acceptance to 13,237 cabs. San Francisco-based Square is proposing to …
Read More »In a Sneak Peek at Its Mobile Wallet, Isis Says Product Will Come with Preloaded Cash
The Isis mobile wallet, set for release in two U.S. cities this summer, will feature a prepaid card with cash already loaded and a capability to “follow” participating merchants to receive coupons and other offers. The broad outlines of how the wallet will work were disclosed on Wednesday as Isis …
Read More »Boku Invades Point of Sale with a Mobile Wallet Aimed at Wireless Carriers
With e-commerce kingpin PayPal Inc. having used mobile technology to move into processing for brick-and-mortar merchants, it was probably only a matter of time before others followed suit. The latest to join the parade is San Francisco-based mobile-payments provider Boku Inc., which on Thursday announced a platform that will let …
Read More »Isis Shooting for 1,000 Merchants in Each of Two Test Cities When Launch Starts in July
The Isis mobile-payments platform plans to go live at about 1,000 merchant locations in each of the two cities it has targeted for what it calls a “soft launch” this summer, according to officials with the company. While Isis will not identify the merchants it is talking to, it is …
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