MWC 2014 - where NFC met biometrics in Barcelona.
I am just back from MWC 2014 - probably one of the most stressed out shows I visit every year. I know I probably shouldn't say that, but come on, let's be honest with each other here: This year there were approximately 85,000 visitors (according to official figures) so it's hardly going to be a quiet walk in the park, is it?
The trick, I have found, is to concentrate only on what you really want to see. It's so easy to get distracted otherwise. For me, one of the 'look for technology' this year was NFC and its use either outside of the wallet or as a co-operating technology. It wasn't that hard to find, either. Wherever I looked, NFC appeared to be embedded into tablets, wearables, and other machine-to-machine form factors. And as well as embedding into other form factors, its use in conjunction with biometric technology was also very evident.
Some of those companies showcasing mobile wearable technology included Samsung, who showed the press their new Galaxy S5 with NFC and fingerprint verification. Following suit is Alcatel, with their OneTouch, who are to bring out a wearable handset with NFC and non-NFC options and Sony, who will use NFC in their smart wristband, as well as two new Xperia smartphones, an Xperia tablet, and other accessories. Getting back to Samsung, though, they may not be their first to offer fingerprint technology but they are the first to use it in conjunction with mobile payments.
The technology company is working with PayPal, and in a statement, the company's CPO (Chief Product Officer), Hill Ferguson said, "The only information the device shares with PayPal is a unique encrypted key that allows us to verify the identity of the customer. Consumers don’t need to sacrifice convenience to increase security,” emphasising that security is an important issue and that a user’s biometric details are not stored on PayPal servers.
Combining biometrics with payment solutions, enabling two-factor authentication, is a nice way to reassure users, concerned with security of their mobile transactions, that everything is OK. Samsung were not the only company to emphasise this point. Hitachi’s security solutions business manager Peter Jones said, “The decision to adopt biometric technology is indicative of a much wider trend that is seeing sensors being used across both consumer and business applications to improve user experience, but crucially to increase security.” Hitachi is betting that the implementation of biometrics in mobile handsets is the just the beginning and 2014 will see a wider adoption of biometrics across a variety of different industries and markets.
Of course, PayPal know a good thing when they see it. They were quick to follow each and every Samsung announcement with a 'we have an app for that' statement. With the Galaxy S5, PayPal will support fingerprint authentication as an alternative to passwords. With the Gear 2 smartwatch, PayPal will allow consumers to manage their accounts, redeem offers and authorize payments from their wrists. Of course, I don't want to appear disingenuous – PayPal is a member of the FIDO appliance and they obviously want to decrease reliance on traditional passwords - fingerprint would be an obvious alternative now that the technology is being rolled out across mobile handsets. So who wouldn't want to follow the trend that makes sense on many levels?
Of course many commentators say that there isn't a viable market short term for wearable computing. Ron Shevlin, a senior analyst at Aite Group said, "PayPal's initiative with Samsung is an interesting experiment, and probably does more to enhance their image and branding as a technology leader than it does to drive transactions and revenue." That's a little harsh, I thought.
Following on from my editorial last week on Host Card Emulation (HCE), there were plenty of further announcements concerning this secure payment solution. Many from transaction technology providers, including the likes of Carta Worldwide and banks around Europe (and the Baltics)including Privatbank in Ukraine. Probably best to leave that particular subject there for the moment. I imagine they have bigger things to worry about right now than the safety of their mobile payments…
Other news concerned the partnership and acquisition of various entities and companies; the acquiring of C-SAM by MasterCard, the roll out of mobile payments across Germany and the formation of an Asian NFC partnership. Visa also confirmed what we already suspected; that Mobile payments in Europe are gathering momentum.
However, my favourite moment was doing the NFC check-in. Never mind that I brought along a Samsung phone that was NFC-enabled and I had registered (and was verified) with the conference under an NFC ticket; the entry points would just not work for me. On both the first and second day I was there, MWC entrance staff gave up (after first verifying that 1) I was not an idiot and 2) I had an NFC-enabled phone and everything was working fine) and allowed me to touch my print-out badge to the reader.
The third day I collected one of the Incipio cashwrap NFC cases (powered by DeviceFidelity - as they continued to remind us) and low and behold - I made an NFC entrance! With an iPhone, no less! Is it wrong to say that this was the highlight of my trip to Barcelona? Incipio's CEO, Andy Fathollahi, told me that they expect to give away over 10,000 case over the duration of the show - no half measures there, then. He also expects to sell over a million of the phone cases this year (approx. $69 each) as they are used for the Isis wallet. I nodded, smiled and remained silent. I can't let my cynicism effect other people. No matter how impressed I was for using NFC to enter MWC 2014 with my iPhone!
Until next week.
Steve Atkins
Contactless Intelligence
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