Dear Readers,
Last week saw Microsoft unveiling its NFC-enabled mobile wallet, as part of its planned Windows Phone 8 operating system, which the software giant introduced at its Windows Phone Summit.
Industry observers had always expected Microsoft to launch their own NFC-enabled wallet and last week's announcement confirmed that the Microsoft Windows Phone will be the third major mobile platform to support a wallet, after Google’s Android-based NFC wallet and the 2D barcode/QR code Passbook wallet from Apple (unveiled a week earlier). But unlike Google, Microsoft has made it clear it will support SIMs as the secure element to anchor payment and other secure applications in its wallet (http://bit.ly/KZ4YnU). This decision to place the secure element either in the SIM or the phone hardware itself is becoming a diving point among mobile wallet providers with no clear winner in sight (http://bit.ly/L8YnM9). This topic is still an area that no particular company has come out and embraced as their own. Are there any companies that are willing to?
The other news that made headlines through the twitter sphere this week was that of an Android app that can steal contactless credit card data (http://bit.ly/LlwpLp). The app, dubbed paycardreader, will skim card numbers and expiry dates, along with transactions and merchant IDs, and was successfully tested against a German PayPass Mastercard. The app required either an NFC-enabled (near field communications) handset, or for users to attach a near field communications transmitter to their Android phones. All very high profile, scary stuff. Except to those in the know - it isn't. The card that the developer, Thomas Skora, senior consultant for Integralis, used actually has a stored value in the card and was a closed loop payment card, not EMV (we have been led to believe). As many of you know, you still need the CCV2 number, which is not available to be read by the NFC chip. I have also heard that some of the newer cards do not even show the card holders name anymore (although I wait to be corrected if this is not the case).
There have been apps like this available in market for ages. This is not the first. In fact, I have heard it can be done with Nokia and Blackberry phones - not just Android phones. Fundamentally, the Android App does not "steal" data at all. It reads data as it is meant to be read; the same way the card was designed to work.
But enough of this depressingly familiar stuff – summer is almost upon us (looking at the weather, hard to believe, I know, but still…). And that means festival season! And what better eco-systems, sorry, events, to unleash the raw power of NFC and contactless upon a young, impressionable crowd? The two that have been in the news were the Isle of wight Festival with the first appearance of the auto top-up feature in the MasterCard PayPass wristband (http://wp.me/p1Jrjn-I1) and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers show at Knebworth, where fans were able to use their bands to enter competitions at the event and check in on Facebook at the Samsung stand, which will also promote its latest handsets. the NFC technology in use is from Samsung and is set to be used at selected live music events this summer in people’s wristbands as a pre-curser to people using NFC-enabled mobile phones as their tickets to music events (http://bit.ly/LBznJL). How cool is that! Please ignore the rains, floods and mud…
Well, not as cool as the quiz for this month's Intelligence - featuring a USD Hub Droid by the name of R2D2 (http://wp.me/p1Jrjn-GY). It's an easy quiz, a cool prize and even easier to enter. Just click on the Facebook site, download the quiz app to your Facebook page, answer the questions and submit - what could be easier? Come on - is it really so difficult? Thought not. It all ends this Friday, so don't delay… You can even click on the banner in the right hand sidebar.
Until next week.
Steve Atkins
Contactless Intelligence
Featured on C-ITV this week
Payments & m-Commerce
Hungary gets a mobile wallet with Cellum http://bit.ly/MApI7C
HTC to unveil mobile banking phone in Taiwan http://bit.ly/MApHQR
Absa expands contactless payment network http://bit.ly/MApX2m
Square now has two million mobile payment users in the USA http://bit.ly/MApYmX
eWallets: Airtel launches Chad mobile money service http://bit.ly/LZvtLw
ACI Strengthens Mobile Payments Solution With Bell ID Lifecycle Management Technology http://bit.ly/Nd3z00
Welsh village picked for O2 Wallet payments demo http://bit.ly/PgyJTI
QNB promotes NFC payments with ‘first transaction free’ offer http://bit.ly/M0r7Ud
HTC calls for standardized mobile payments http://bit.ly/NOMYRe
German Online retailers expect strong m-commerce growth - survey http://bit.ly/NOMXwL
Rev joins crowded Square-alike market http://bit.ly/LI1ZnZ
Co-operative Bank selects Monitise for mobile services http://bit.ly/LFpniF
China Mobile Signs Deal with Payment Network UnionPay to Cooperate on Mobile Payment http://bit.ly/LFpwms
Swiss consumers show high interest in m-commerce - study http://bit.ly/LFpta4
NFC & Mobile
Microsoft unveils mobile wallet with SIM-based NFC http://bit.ly/KZ4YnU
Android app steals contactless credit card data http://bit.ly/LlwpLp
Microsoft Windows Phone 8: New Start screen, multi-core support, NFC, and more http://bit.ly/LlwnTR
Microsoft Signals Support for SIMs with Its NFC-Enabled Wallet for Windows Phone 8 http://bit.ly/LI27E1
Visa Europe to Send Out Olympics Phone Next Week in Prep for Games http://bit.ly/MApTzD
Taiwanese Bank to Launch PayPass on microSDs in HTC NFC Phone http://bit.ly/MApFIV
The evolution of the secure element http://bit.ly/L8YnM9
NFC Forum certifies Inside Secure’s NFC controller chip http://bit.ly/P9FZk8
Samsung patents NFC pen http://bit.ly/PgyFDj
Subaru picks NFC for Canadian car launch http://bit.ly/Pgyxne
HTC Evo 4G LTE users reportedly facing continued Google Wallet woes http://vrge.co/LZvOO9
SK Planet forms NFC alliance with other Korean Tech Firms http://bit.ly/NOMWci
Samsung NFC technology to make UK gig debut http://bit.ly/LFpmvp
Catchwell and Stollmann bring NFC to industrial ecosystem http://bit.ly/LFpjPY
Samsung TecTiles: NFC stickers do cool stuff with your phone http://cnet.co/MEZlcV
Orange and BRD test NFC in Romania http://bit.ly/LFpuuF
NFC Forum Welcomes Canon, HP, Infineon Technologies, and Yahoo! JAPAN as Principal Members http://bit.ly/LFpnzh
Association Francaise du Sanss Conatct Mobile say more than a million people in France have Cityzi mobile phones... http://bit.ly/O3U7OZ
Transportation, Ticketing & Loyalty
John Lewis outdoor ads invite NFC touches http://bit.ly/LI1PNs
Square Ventures Beyond Payments With Debut Of Customer
Loyalty Punchcard Program http://tcrn.ch/NOMTx2
MTR Octopus fares fury as tickets take cheaper route http://bit.ly/MApDRi
Mobile phones could be used to pay for train and bus journeys across the country http://bit.ly/MApEVe
Netherlands Railways adopts national transport smart card fares http://bit.ly/NON4IA
Other News & Opinion Articles
LivingSocial Says It Has No Plans to Be a Mobile Payments Provider http://dthin.gs/LI2pe2
An Entire Day in Italy Devoted to Being Cashless – Now that’s Priceless! http://bit.ly/LHzXZM
Contactless payment deters 95% of consumers http://bit.ly/NOONOl
New Customer Data From USA Technologies Shows Cashless Sales
84% Higher After One Year of Cashless Adoption http://bit.ly/NON77o
Secure NFC solutions from ST Microelectronics enable Wasion Group’s power meters: http://bit.ly/M3JCIJ
Mobile wallets will fail without open standards http://bit.ly/NON0J6
The Phoenix Group Expands Its offer With Ingenico Devices to handle NFC Mobile and EMV Payments http://bit.ly/NON0bZ
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