Payments Watch

Mobile Phone As ATM Machine

John Januszczak — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 20:39:20 +0000

I was watching a presentation by Jan Chipchase that was given at TED. This talk was about how we interact with technology, specifically what happens when people share cells phones, an object that is actually designed for personal use. In describing how kiosks are popping up on the streets of Africa with little more than a mobile phone and a sign advertising call rates, he outlines an ingenious method of money transfer.

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Frying Your Chicken & Egg

John Januszczak — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 13:39:06 +0000

No one is going to use your new payments platform until a significant number of businesses or people accept the new method, yet no one is going to invest in the infrastructure to accept and handle the new payment method until lots of customers are using the new method. This chicken & egg problem needs to be addressed in any strategy, and the answer is often having a backward compatibility option that dissolves the problem.
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Shop With Your Mobile Phone, Kind of…

John Januszczak — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 00:18:29 +0000

Verizon announced today that customers can Leave The Cash At Home – Obopay Will Give Verizon Wireless Subscribers The Option To Shop With Their Phones. It was worthwhile to actually read the press release to see how all of this would work.
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Aryty: Prepaid Top-up From Overseas

John Januszczak — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 01:14:28 +0000

Aryty allows you to send prepaid credit to mobile phone accounts in the Philippines from the United States and Canada. This is a brilliant idea combining two mobile payment applications (mobile phone prepaid top-up and overseas remittance) into one.
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What’s Next - Pay By Sight?

John Januszczak — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 21:26:20 +0000

First there was Pay By Touch, which uses fingerprints to authenticate purchasers. Now there is Pay By Voice (actually branded as Voice Pay) which uses biometric voice analysis to authenticate purchasers.
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Mobile Money & Banking Blog

John Januszczak — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 02:10:58 +0000

Netbanker, a great blog dedicated to online banking has decided to create a new, separate blog to track the evolving mobile banking and payments sector given the amount of material they are generating on mobile financial services alone.
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How Do Mobile Payments Work?

John Januszczak — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 15:14:32 +0000

From a purely technical perspective, you can think of mobile payments being enabled via either hardware or software. The hardware approach is the mobile device as a chip carrier (like smart cards). The software approach involves a “virtual wallet” type concept that is accessed via SMS, WAP (browser on the phone) or a mobile software application.
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The Advertising Angle of Mobile Payments

John Januszczak — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 02:22:08 +0000

Targeted advertising on mobile devices has not escaped the notice of such heavyweights as the CEO of Google:
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How to Introduce Mobile Payments

John Januszczak — Wed, 30 May 2007 20:36:00 +0000

I have been thinking a lot more about how Mobile Payments (”mpayments”) might gain traction in North America. Let’s look at some of the possibilities:
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A Good Idea for Mobile Banking

John Januszczak — Wed, 23 May 2007 17:29:57 +0000

I have often wondered, why can’t consumers also take advantage of a “positive pay” feature on their checking accounts.
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