The US and Canada accounted for 63% of a total 5.7m NFC-enabled Nintendo Amiibo figurines sold at the end of 2014, followed by Europe in second place with 23%, Japan with 11% and Australia with 3%... More
Results
UK to increase contactless transaction limit by 50%
The spending limit for contactless transactions is to be increased from £20 (US$30) to £30 (US$46) in September 2015, The UK Cards Association has told NFC World. The move follows the news last week that contactless card usage surged in the UK in 2014 to 319.2m transactions with total spend more than trebling to a record £2.32bn. More
Visa CEO discusses Apple Pay and tokenization rollouts
“We continue to see good success with Apple Pay,” Visa CEO Charlie Scharf has told investors during the company’s first quarter earnings call... More
Apple CEO says 2015 will be the “year of Apple Pay”
Apple Pay now accounts for more than two-thirds of Visa, MasterCard and American Express contactless payments by value across the US, Apple CEO Tim Cook has revealed during a first quarter earnings call... More
Starbucks increases mobile payments to 16% of total
Starbucks is now processing an average of seven million mobile payments a week, representing around 16% of all its transactions, CEO Howard Schultz has revealed during a first quarter earnings call in which he also provided an update on the Mobile Order and Pay service the coffee giant introduced in Portland, Oregon in December last year... More
NXP CEO: NFC secure elements will continue to see strong demand
“We feel very comfortable with the strength of the secure element,” NXP Semiconductors CEO Rick Clemmer has told analysts during the chip maker’s second quarter earnings call... More
Zuckerberg: Facebook is working on payments but it will take time to get it right
Facebook is looking into the potential of adding payments capabilities across its business, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has explained during the company’s first earnings call following the hiring of PayPal boss David Marcus to head its messaging business — but the company won’t rush into the market and expects to take several years to fully develop its offering... More
Barclays reports Pingit stats
Barclays’ Pingit P2P payments service has been used to send £540million since the launch of the service in February 2012, the bank has revealed, and the app has been downloaded 3m times... More
PayPal volumes grow 29%
PayPal’s total payment volume (TPV) grew 29% with merchant services volume up 35% and on-eBay volume up 13% during the quarter to end June 2014, parent eBay has reported... More
Safaricom reports on merchant adoption of mobile money at the point of sale
Kenyan mobile network operator Safaricom has now signed up 122,000 merchants for Lipa na M-Pesa, a service launched in June 2013 that enables Kenyan consumers to use the funds stored in their M-Pesa mobile money account to pay for goods in stores... More
SIMalliance reports 159% growth in NFC SIM shipments
A total of 4.2bn SIMs were shipped in 2013 by members of the SIMalliance, an organisation that represents suppliers responsible for 86% of the global SIM market, 5% down on 2012... More
Isis considers HCE as monthly growth hits 50%
US NFC venture Isis is considering using host card emulation (HCE) to store a user’s loyalty card and coupon information, the company has told NFC World, and is also looking into supporting HCE for credit card payments — should banks decide they want to use the technology... More
NFC for Access Control webinar: See it now on NFC World
NFC World’s “Tap to Pass: NFC for Access Control” webinar, featuring the latest consumer and administrator insights from multiple field trials, is now available to view online... More
NXP reports slowdown in NFC revenue growth
NXP Semiconductors has reported a slowdown in revenue growth for its NFC business in 2013 but says it is optimistic that business will pick up again during the second half of this year... More
Rabobank sets NFC mobile wallet launch date
The NFC payments pilot in the Dutch city of Leiden has proved successful in terms of both consumer and merchant uptake, partners Rabobank, ING and ABN Amro report — and Rabobank is now set to commercially launch an NFC mobile wallet during the second quarter of 2014... More
Positive reaction sees Hungarian mobile wallet ready for market
Eight out of ten testers of the Hungarian mobile wallet pilot project have found the service “very useful” prompting the Hungarian Mobile Wallet Association — an alliance between mobile network operators Magyar Telekom, Vodafone and Telenor with MasterCard, OTP Bank and SuperShop — to declare the MobilTarca wallet ready for market... More
Inside Secure doubles NFC sales
Security chip specialist Inside Secure‘s mobile NFC division recorded sales of US$9.5m during Q2 2013, double its sales during the first quarter of the year, according to the company’s latest financial results... More
Isis releases pilot test results
Analysis by carrier-owned NFC mobile payments venture Isis of its pilot tests in the cities of Salt Lake City, Utah and Austin, Texas has found that more than 80% of transactions take place at everyday spend locations such as quick-service restaurants, coffee shops, gas stations, convenience stores and grocery shops... More
Coca-Cola reports on Isis loyalty project
“More than one-third of active Isis Mobile Wallets users in Austin have loaded a My Coke Rewards card into their wallet since our pilot began and 90 percent of these are new to the My Coke Rewards program,” Rick Kanemasu, from Coca-Cola North America‘s vending technology strategy team, has revealed as the Isis NFC mobile payments venture announces plans to go live across the US this year... More
Inside Secure NFC chip sales fall
Inside Secure has reported a fall in revenues of 68% year-on-year for its Mobile NFC division... More