Telcos frustrated as EU delays mobile wallet April 12, 2012 A FUTURE where you will swipe your phone instead of your credit card looks set to be placed on hold a little while longer, with the European Commission expected to delay its decision on a UK “mobile wallet” scheme. The commission will reveal its decision later today on a joint venture proposal between Vodafone, Everything [...]
OLYMPIC MEDIA BUZZ LONDON 2012 PARTNERS April 1, 2012 IN ASSOCIATION with Repskan.com, City A.M. is measuring the relative Olympic media buzz around the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games partners, week by week. The leaderboard, right, reflects their ranking over the past week, in this case from Wednesday 21 March to Wednesday 28 March. Samsung often receives a similar volume of online mentions [...]
MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS February 22, 2012 NOKIA TO UNVEIL CHEAPER LUMIA Nokia is poised to unveil a new, cheaper smartphone using Microsoft’s Windows Phone software at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona next week. The struggling Finnish giant wants to target a wider market for its new range of smartphones, with its flagship Lumia 800 failing to make the desired [...]
Barclays unveils cash-free payment app in bid to poach bank customers February 15, 2012 BARCLAYS has launched a mobile app that could see the bank poach thousands of customers from rivals by giving them the ability to pay without cash. The app, called Pingit, is aimed at boosting Barclays’ brand by linking the lender to a convenient service. It lets users link their mobile number to their bank account [...]
Visa Europe saw revenues jump above €1bn last year January 17, 2012 VISA EUROPE, which runs the biggest card payments system in the region, reported a 13 per cent rise in the number of transactions over its platform last year, accounting for a seventh of all consumer spending in Europe. The number of cards rose by 6.5 per cent to 445m and it processed 11.8bn transactions. The [...]
TECHNO FASHION | THE GADGETS YOU CAN WEAR January 4, 2012 WATCH2PAY, £99 This collaboration between watch manufacturer LAKS and MasterCard allows you to make contactless payments in shops like Pret by simply scanning it at the till. It’s no Rolex but early adopters can jump on the NFC bandwagon with this while Apple takes its time putting the technology into its iPhones. watch2pay.com IPHONE GLOVES, [...]
Lo-Q partners with MasterCard December 6, 2011 Lo-Q, an online queuing system, and MasterCard have agreed to develop a contactless payment solution for theme parks. The agreement between the companies will last three years and is expected to increase Lo-Q’s market value over the long-term. The companies will combine MasterCard’s PayPass payments technology, which allows users to checkout using their mobile phones, [...]
Opening up the Oyster card beats charging ahead with TfL’s expensive alternative December 5, 2011 LAST week the London Assembly Transport Committee (LATC) released its report on the future of ticketing in the capital. No big deal, you might think – if you assume the Oyster card seems to function rather well. The heart of the problem is that Oyster is not only far too expensive, but has become so [...]
If the City didn’t exist, we’d need to invent it November 2, 2011 WHAT have financial services ever done for me? It is a question that the Occupy the London Stock Exchange protesters could well ask themselves, as they bring the church (rather than capitalism) to its knees. The public debate about financial services has focused on bonuses and risks, but there has been virtually no discussion of [...]
Phones beyond Apple: our pick of the new crop October 5, 2011 HOORAY, the not-quite-iPhone 5 has arrived. Yes, it has this fancy voice-recognition software, which might well solve the perennial iPhone typing problem and has finally caught up with the majority of the market with its 8 megapixel camera. But whether this latest model is enough of a change to warrant ditching your current phone or [...]