Mobile Commerce News Weekly – Week of July 29, 2012

The Mobile Commerce News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news, articles and links related to mobile payments, mobile money, e-wallets, mobile banking and mobile security that I run across each week.  I am specifically targeting market size and market trend information.

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AuthenTec, a U.S. mobile and network security provider has agreed to be acquired by Apple.  One of its key offerings is fingerprint sensor, which can be used for authentication and security in mobile payments by phones, and is seen by some analysts as a target of Apple's purchase. Read Original Content

In India, the number of bank transactions through mobile devices grew over two-and-half times to 3.34 million in May 2012 from 1.28 million in May 2011, according to the Reserve Bank of India. Read Original Content

Charlie Miller, a principal research consultant at security company Accuvant, demonstrated on July 25 how NFC can be used to hack into a smartphone and access user information. Read Original Content

Verivo is a leading provider of enterprise mobility software. Verivo helps companies accelerate their business results. Its unique technology empowers teams to build, deploy, manage and update their mobile apps -- rapidly and securely. Verivo’s mobility platform is used by hundreds of companies in numerous industries, worldwide. This newsletter is sponsored in part by Verivo.  To learn more, visit www.verivo.com

M-commerce has quickly been adopted by 37 percent of U.S. consumers and is heavily driven by women and younger consumers (25-34). Driven by the popularity of mobile devices and the comfort consumers have found shopping on them, mobile commerce will continue to grow. Read Original Content

Worldwide Olympic and Paralympic partner for the London 2012 Games has announced mobile payments will be featured throughout the events to draw attention to the latest innovations for completing transactions and transforming the way money is exchanged and managed. Read Original Content

Mobile and online payments company payvia has come up with a new mobile payments solution. According to the company, it now offers a convenient option that complements merchant checkouts to reduce abandoned transactions, increase conversions and deliver more paying customers. Read Original Content

Insider's Insight into NFC - Near Field Communications

Over the past few years, we have seen significant changes across all the major smartphone platforms led by companies such as Apple, Google, BlackBerry and Microsoft.  Each vendor is trying to add unique values in order to differentiate themselves from the crowd.  This competition is helping smartphones evolve as a platform for software applications rather than just being a messaging platform.  Given these developments, technologies such as Near Field Communications (NFC) are getting renewed attention.

NFC has the potential to impact the way we shop, travel and transfer data. It can make our lives easier and transactions more convenient. It can make accessing new media and content services more instinctive; it can make it easier to pay for things; easier to discover, synchronize and share information; and easier to use public transportation and other public services.  NFC is creating new opportunities for MNOs (mobile network operators), device manufacturers, service provider, enterprises and consumers.

Endeavour and BlackBerry are presenting a webinar on “Insider’s Insight into NFC” where they will discuss NFC device and application capabilities.  This webinar will be presented on December 8th, 2011, at 10:30 AM CDT.  Register here!

Webinar Outline:

• Introduction to Near Field Communication
• NFC Ecosystem with focus on NFC Enabled Smartphone Devices
• NFC Use Cases
• Guidelines & Considerations
• Future of NFC

Participants and Highlights:

• NFC Application Demo
• Tom Parish - Mobile Strategy Thought Leader
• Pradeep Rao - Alliances Solutions Manager at Research In Motion
• Dwarak LN – Sr. Consultant – Technology Consulting Group, Endeavour
• Basavraj Birajdar – Technical Architect, Endeavour

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Volunteer

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Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Ben Lee on the Mobile Wallet

Mobile retailing guru Ben Lee has written a very interesting blog article on Google's new mobile payment platform.  Some of the most interesting points are as follows:

• Google’s next version of its Android Smartphone software will support a technology that lets people use their handsets, instead of credit cards.
• Google CEO Eric Schmitt said that support for Near Field Communications will be integrated into the next version of its Android software.
• Three of the four largest mobile phone carriers in the U.S. have formed a joint venture to turn phones into digital wallets.
• Many mobile application developers will incorporate this new functionality into mobile retailing applications.