Tag: Softcard

NFC – Not For Commerce?

eBay Chief Executive John Donahoe recently claimed that NFC stands for “Not for Commerce”, when discussing Near Field Communication being used to turn cell phones into mobile wallets. At Mobile World Congress, Russell Buckley said something along the same lines. Apple has not yet backed the technology as many were expecting, but many of the […]

Collaborating to drive mobile commerce in the Middle East

The next time you’re in Dubai, see if you can spot the fast-moving commuters on the RTA public transport network. If you look closely, you’ll probably see they are using Go4it cards, launched by UAE bank Emirates NBD 16 months ago and whose success was celebrated at Cards & Payments Middle East earlier this month […]

Mobile Wallet or Bust!

A one-of-a-kind challenge is coming to the U.S. next week! Starting next Monday (June 10th), we’ve tasked two tech-savvy individuals from Austin and Salt Lake City to pay for most of their daily needs using just their mobile phone.  In one corner we have Austin blogger, Josh Kerr (‘uber entrepreneur’) and in the other, from […]

How ready is the US for contactless payments?

Seasoned readers of the blog will know all about the contactless challenge we ran in London last year. Two of the city’s finest mobile bloggers, Ewan MacLeod and Jon Choo, went head-to-head as they put London’s NFC payment infrastructure to the test. The findings were enlightening on the state of contactless payments in the UK, […]

Contactless Challenge Day One: Using NFC for the first time

Day 1 JoshKathy 49   It’s on! The Gemalto 2013 Contactless Challenge  has officially commenced, with our fearless bloggers Kathy Dalton of Salt Lake City, UT (@KathyDaltonSLC) and Josh Kerr of Austin, TX (@joshkerr) on the hunt with their Isis NFC-equipped phones, ready to make contactless purchases and score points. The stakes are high: they are competing […]

Contactless Challenge Day Two: Flowers, Dinner and Vine Oh My

Day 2 JoshKathy 1514   Our intrepid bloggers Kathy Dalton (@KathyDaltonSLC) and Josh Kerr (@JoshKerr) once again roamed the streets of Salt Lake City, UT and Austin, TX, respectively, in the noble pursuit of completing their Contactless Challenge tasks. On this second day, Josh emerged victorious, earning 15 points and edging out Kathy’s 14 for […]