Thursday 8 July 2010 at 10:49
Since their inception smart cards have suffered in some contexts of being considered as an “odd” form factor. Connecting a smart card on a PC requires a specific reader. Even if the cost of transparent readers has been brought down over time, adding a transparent reader on a personal computer is still an obstacle for the adoption of our technology in a home or office environment.
Thursday 1 July 2010 at 17:02
SIMposium is now taking place in Rome, and is, as usual, the best place to meet everyone involved in the SIM industry. During this event SIM alliance delivers its market figures (cf. Focus below), which show resilience, even during crisis times, and all stakeholders share their views about SIM markets, technologies, standards, etc.
Thursday 24 June 2010 at 20:39
This week brings good news for our industry. Maybe the common point between all these good news is recognition. Nokia announced it would include NFC capabilities in its new Symbian smartphones from 2011 onwards. We all know that a part of the delay in NFC adoption comes from the lack of handsets. Nokia has sent mixed signals in the past, as the company was one of the founders of the NFC forum, and was among the first to propose NFC handsets, only to remove them from the offer shortly afterwards (cf. Focus section).
Thursday 17 June 2010 at 19:18
Last week, “Mobile payment 10” exhibition occurred in Paris, was a great opportunity to seize in real what is happening in this ever changing arena.
Thursday 10 June 2010 at 09:09
As promised before the elections, the UK ID project is cancelled (cf. Government ID section). Or at least, it is about to be canceled. The Tories announced long before the British general elections that they would not keep the GBP 800 million (EUR 943.1 million) ID card project running. Interestingly, the fate of the population database, which is also expected to be the base of the ePassport) is not decided yet. As development had already started after a long RFQ process, the government will have to pay penalties to its suppliers for the contract cancellation. And remains to be seen whether the government will be forced to pay a compensation to British citizens who got a now useless ID card for GBP 30 (EUR 35.70).
Thursday 3 June 2010 at 10:28
Mobile Payment includes both the mobile money projects allowing to transfer money from a mobile handset to another one, and close proximity payment, such as using the NFC technology.
Thursday 27 May 2010 at 17:03
After much anticipation, the NFC project in Nice has been launched at the end of last week. The project is called “the first commercial launch of contactless mobile services in Europe » by its promoters, but one may wonder whether a project which is limited in terms of time, space, and number of users actually qualifies for the term “commercial launch”. Nice is also limited by the fact only one handset is available at the moment. However, even if it is to be called a super pilot, the Nice project involves 4,000 users, which makes it one of the largest in the world.
Thursday 20 May 2010 at 15:02
Not one week passes without statistics published either by vendors or by independent analysts about the mobile phone market. These analysis, as they have been in existence for years, get more and more convergent and accurate. They itemize the market by type of cell phone, type of usage, geography, and of course by vendor. In the payment industry, financials are readily available about financial masses, or amount of payment by cards. In related industries, we know that PC manufacturers release all their shipment figures by PC type, technical features, geography, etc. on a monthly basis. The semi-conductor industry, our core technology supplier is also very transparent in terms of sales, shipments, memory sizes, etc.
Thursday 13 May 2010 at 11:17
This short sentence form the Tao Te Ching (Lao Tzu) totally applies to the numerous rumors about a potential inclusion of NFC capabilities in the next generation of Apple iPhone handsets.
Thursday 6 May 2010 at 10:47
As a witness of the secure transactions industry, we often hear or read announcements that pretend to represent a change in the industry. And after a few years, I must say, we generally do not believe in it…
Thursday 29 April 2010 at 10:48
WIMA took place last week in Monaco in spite of the clouds forming over public transport, and, as a consequence, over all business attempts.
Thursday 22 April 2010 at 11:59
Cloud computing has been the most frequent buzzword over the last few months. Even more frequent than near field communication, 4G or mobile money. And now, just a little volcanic ash cloud and whole of Europe is in disarray. The cancellation of thousands of flights over Europe, and to and from Europe, has put the whole economy in a state of total disorganization. The direct consequences are already known: huge losses for the travel and tourism industries. These difficulties are hitting an industry just starting to recover from the crisis.
Thursday 15 April 2010 at 14:28
We have been trying to combine mobile communication with payment for a few years now. Now the technology is more mature than ever, and is going into several directions, with different objectives, and different infrastructure needs.
Thursday 8 April 2010 at 11:57
I was happy to participate in Cartes Afrique conference last week in Tunisia, and to realize that, in our industry, in many regards Africa is ahead of Europe and has many things to teach to other parts of the world.
Saturday 3 April 2010 at 15:42
Ericsson just announced that, for the first time ever, mobile data traffic surpassed voice traffic on a global basis during December 2009.
