payments

Using our mobile phones as wallets is closer to reality. At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this morning, Deutsche Telekom, parent company of T-Mobile USA, says it will unleash the capability to its customers this year.

The first customers to get the full payment system are those subscribers in Germany and Poland. The U.S., Netherlands, and Czech Republic will follow in 2012. Deutsche Telekom said it expected customers to use their phones in place of cash, and eventually in place of tickets for public transportation systems.

The payment system will be run and billed by the carrier, but it requires phones with NFC, or near-field communication, chips embedded inside. The chips allow data to be sent wirelessly over very short distances, around 4 inches. So when a customer waves his phone over a payment terminal, a transaction can be recorded.

But which handset manufacturers will get on board first? Beyond the Nexus S Android phone, few phones have the chips currently embedded. That's where reports from the press conference get really interesting. According to bloggers who were in the room, Deutsche Telekom executives handed out a slide deck that listed manufacturers it expects to launch NFC-equipped phones this year: Apple sometime this year, Samsung in the second quarter of the year, followed by RIM and LG during the third quarter. … Read more

European consumers may finally be able to pay for items via their smartphones next year, through a system under development by LG Electronics.

LG's system would use a combination of near-field communication (NFC) and cloud computing to allow certain retailers in Europe to accept payments from customers using NFC-equipped smartphones. Scheduled to launch sometime in 2012, the system would also find its way into interactive TVs and security products sold by LG, Reuters reported this week.

"The point-of-sale technology, which will be targeted at small and medium-sized businesses..., is currently in beta testing," Jin-Yong Kim, vice president … Read more

Barclaycard, Orange, and T-Mobile have set an early summer date to launch their near-field communications payment system, in which people can make purchases by waving a mobile phone near a payment station.

Near-field communications (NFC) systems require a lot of technology to be developed and deployed at the same time. Most obviously to a user, they require payment stations and mobile phones with processors that can communicate wirelessly. Less obviously, a back-end infrastructure is required to link the local payment with the necessary computers for processing it.

NFC chips are a rarity in mobile phones today, but they're an … Read more

Consumers may soon be able to pay for items on the go directly through their iPhones or iPads.

Apple is reportedly working to outfit the next generation of its smartphone and tablet with near-field communications (NFC) technology, which would let consumers use the devices to make mobile payments as an alternative to cash and credit cards, according to a story today by the Bloomberg news service.

Richard Doherty, director of the technology consulting firm Envisioneering Group, told Bloomberg that both the iPhone 5 from AT&T and the iPad 2 would likely include NFC chips, citing engineers working on … Read more

Intuit is looking to increase its presence in the mobile payment market by offering a free credit card reader for smartphones and eliminating monthly fees. The offer extends to people who sign up by mid-February. The service, called GoPayment, was launched in 2009.

Intuit is best known for its Quicken personal finance software, TurboTax tax preparation software and service, and QuickBooks for small business, With this free offer, Intuit is squaring off against Square which also offers a free credit card swiper and no monthly fees. Both Intuit and Square do charge transaction fees which, for most users, start around … Read more

Intuit is offering some healthy incentives to get small businesses to adopt its GoPayment mobile payment service.

Launched in 2009, GoPayment lets small business owners process credit card payments on the go by using a card reader that attaches to a compatible mobile phone. Normally, the card reader costs money, while the service entails a monthly fee.

But as of yesterday, Intuit is now offering a free card reader and is waiving the monthly service free for most customers who sign up for GoPayment by the middle of February. The deal is actually sweeter for people who don't do … Read more

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded:

A new augmented-reality app lets you see what around you is for sale on eBay as you walk down the street

Google lets you manage multiple Gmail accounts from one Gmail login

Microsoft's Kin gets canned by Verizon, finally

Google purchases a company called Zetawire that allows mobile phone payments using near field communication technology

Google Voice will learn your speech patterns better using personalized recognition on Android phones

Google Voice also comes to the iPad

AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile are creating a mobile payment network designed to help consumers more easily pay for items at stores using their cell phones, the trio announced today.

The three mobile companies are building the network, known as Isis, with the initial goal of setting up a mobile payment system in which people can use cell phones to pay for items directly at a retailer, known as point-of-sale purchases.

The system will use a technology called near-field communication (NFC), which provides short-range and encrypted wireless communication between different devices. The companies said the system will … Read more

The mobile payments race took an interesting turn today with an announcement from VeriFone and PayPal.

VeriFone, the business-focused electronic-payments company, unveiled a partnership that brings eBay-owned PayPal's merchant services to VeriFone's PayWare Mobile iPhone application.

PayWare, which is aimed at small businesses, consists of a hardware add-on and complementary iPhone application that turn a mobile handset into a credit card reader. With the new PayPal partnership, PayWare will accommodate PayPal payments as well as traditional credit-card transactions, and PayPal will market PayWare to its user base of business owners and eBay sellers. In addition, PayWare will now … Read more