INSIDE Contactless Launches Initiative to Jumpstart Mobile Payment Market

INSIDE Contactless Launches Initiative to Jumpstart Mobile Payment Market

New Class of MicroPass Solutions Promises to Enable Existing Mobile Phones to Make Contactless Payments

AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France, October 20, 2009–INSIDE Contactless, the world leader in advanced open-standard contactless chip technologies, today announced an initiative to create a new class of mobile payment solutions that banks, brands, transit agencies and others can deploy quickly, easily and in a highly targeted way starting in 2010. INSIDE has already engaged with several innovative technology companies that share its vision to develop a variety of mobile payment solutions based on INSIDE’s proven, certified MicroPass® platform that will enable existing mobile phones to support mobile payments, as well as transit, ID and access control applications. A number of these solutions expected to reach the market as early as this fall.

“We have launched this initiative because we see an opportunity to support our partners and customers with a new class of MicroPass payment options designed to enable alternative mobile payment solutions as early as the start of next year,” said Charles Walton, executive vice president for INSIDE Contactless. “As the leader in contactless payment solutions, INSIDE has the core chip hardware, optimized operating system, applications, reference antenna designs, technical expertise and other tools our partners can use to build a new class of solutions that can connect to existing mobile phones through various means to turn them into powerful payment devices. ”

INSIDE has pioneered the first suite of add-on mobile payment solutions, contactless sticker products based on INSIDE’s MicroPass platform. Mobile handset stickers can turn just about any personal item–from a mobile phone to an employee ID badge–into a payment device. Although not electronically connected to the phone, these stickers are able to support debit, prepaid debit and credit card payments, and are convenient plastic card replacements.

Several new mobile payment solutions coming to market from partners through INSIDE’s initiative will enable mobile phones to integrate with a MicroPass-based secure element outside the phone, enabling solutions to be deployed more rapidly in 2010. Using microSD cards, existing BlueTooth channels, existing data connections, and other methods to communicate with the phone, these peripheral solutions will open the door to more robust, NFC-like payment, transit and access control applications in a next phase of deployment. These solutions will allow a mobile phone user to easily make a payment from among several virtual credit or debit cards stored within the mobile payment peripheral device, see the balance remaining on prepaid debit cards or transit passes, and even collect and redeem coupons and loyalty points.

“INSIDE is in a unique position because of our relationships with bank card issuers, transit agencies, brands, access control companies and others, as well as with the technology innovators who are trying to produce new kinds of mobile payment solutions, and we have proven contactless payment chip platforms that have been certified by the major card brands,” said Walton. “Whether it’s NFC or a mobile payment peripheral solution, INSIDE can provide compatibility and a future evolution path because the same chips, the same operating system, the same performance, the same security and the same interface that works with the same contactless readers are utilized.”

MicroPass products have already been approved by Visa, MasterCard and Discover Network for use in a number of card products, providing manufacturers with an advantage as they work towards final product qualification.

The MicroPass family of intelligent hardware platforms are used to power more certified payment products than any other contactless technology, and have been designed from the ground up to support multiple contactless applications, including contactless payment, transit fare collection, access control, retail loyalty programs and lightweight ID applications. Its low power and high performance, combined with fast transaction time and outstanding read distance, enables MicroPass to deliver a superior user experience for a broad range of new mobile payment solutions.

Technology companies developing mobile payment solutions who would like to participate in this initiative, as well as banks, retailers, transit agencies, access control companies and others who are interested in developing new mobile payment applications, should contact INSIDE Contactless for more information.

About INSIDE Contactless

INSIDE Contactless is the global leader in open-standard contactless payment and Near Field Communication (NFC) semiconductors and software that power the next generation of payment, transit, identity and access control applications. The company’s intelligent, microprocessor-based platforms offer the flexibility to be embedded in smart cards, mobile phones and other consumer electronic devices, documents, badges and other items to support a wide range of innovative contactless applications and bring new levels of convenience to users. INSIDE has delivered more than 300 million contactless platforms worldwide to customers and partners that include many of the leading payment card and mobile phone manufacturers, systems integrators and financial institutions. With a portfolio of 60 families of patents, including several essential NFC patents, the company has played a leading role in NFC and contactless innovation. INSIDE is headquartered in Aix-en-Provence, France, with offices in Shanghai, Singapore, Warsaw, Seoul and Silicon Valley. For more information, please visit http://www.insidecontactless.com.

Contacts

For INSIDE Contactless:
Patrick Corman
Corman Communications, LLC
(650) 326-9648
patrick@cormancom.com
http://www.cormancom.com

INSIDE company contact:
Geraldine Sauniere
Marcom Director
+33 (0) 4 42 39 33 01
gsauniere@insidefr.com