Tag: nfc technology

SIX aims to bring a nationwide mobile payments service to Switzerland

| August 11, 2015

SIX and Swisscom to develop a new payment service for consumers

SIX, Switzerland’s financial infrastructure operator, has teamed with Swisscom, one of the largest telecommunications companies in the country, in order to expand mobile payments throughout Switzerland. The two organizations will be working with banks in order to establish a nationwide mobile payments service, which may help accommodate the growing demand for such a service coming from consumers. Many people are beginning to rely on their mobile devices to shop online, and companies like SIX and Swisscom have new opportunities to engage these consumers and find success.

New service will be based on Paymit mobile application

The new mobile payments service will be based on an existing application called Paymit, which was launched by SIX through a partnership with other companies earlier this year. The application acts as a peer-to-peer transfer service that allows users to send and receive funds using information stored in their Paymit accounts. The new mobile payments service will not only support online transactions, however, as it will also enable consumers to make mobile transactions in physical stores. This functionality is expected to go live in early 2016.

Bluetooth or NFC technology will power transactions made through the service in physical stores

Switzerland - Mobile PaymentsNFC technology is likely to play a role in the new payments service, as it has formed the backbone of mobile commerce for several years. NFC has been criticized in the past for having some security issues, but the technology is still used quite heavily when it comes to mobile payments. Bluetooth could serve as an alternative to NFC, but the mobile payments services is still in early stages of development and no technology has yet been settled upon.

Demand for mobile payments support continues to grow

Demand for mobile payments services has been on the rise in recent years. Large companies, such as Apple and Google, have already broken into this sector. For some, however, their payment services are not widely available outside of the United States. Despite this, consumers have found a wide range of mobile payments services that they have become interested in.

Samsung has begun testing its mobile payments platform

| July 21, 2015

Samsung tests Samsung Pay in South Korea

Samsung begun testing its new mobile payments platform in South Korea. Called Samsung Pay, the platform aims to become one of the most effective ways for consumers to make mobile payments, competing with other services from companies like Apple and Google. The platform has already generate some degree of hype, and Samsung has tentative plans to release it at some point later in the year, but has yet to announce an official launch date.

Samsung Pay to use magnetic secure transmission to make mobile payments accessible

Samsung Pay works in a similar fashion to other mobile payments platforms, leveraging NFC technology and biometrics in order to authenticate a mobile transaction. The biometrics that the platform uses, which is a fingerprint scanner, will make transactions secure, effectively protection consumer financial information as they use Samsung Pay to purchase products. The platform also makes use of magnetic secure transmission, which is a similar to the magnetic strips that are associated with traditional credit cards.

NFC technology has yet to see widespread adoption among retailers

Mobile Payments being TestedNFC technology is one of the staples of mobile payments, but relatively few retailers have yet to embrace the technology. There are few NFC-enabled point-of-sale systems, which has limited the growth of mobile payments in physical stores. This is why Samsung Pay’s magnetic secure transmission may be a boon, as it will allow the platform to work with conventional point-of-sale systems in order to make mobile payments possible.

Competition in the mobile payments field continues to grow as companies enter into the space

Samsung will be facing harsh competition in the mobile payments space, much of which will come from Apple. Google also plans to launch its own mobile payments platform. This competition will give consumers plenty of options when it comes to mobile payments, but companies may find it difficult to keep the attention of consumers for long. Many consumers have yet to show loyalty to a singular platform, favoring the ability to jump from one platform to another in order to find the most benefit.