Monday, August 21, 2006

NFC news

iBreva - Use Your Mobile Phone For Groceries, Cashback

iBreva, a Palo Alto-based startup, has deployed its mobile phone-based payment system at Bianchini’s Market in Portola Valley, CA. I was shopping for groceries today when I noticed the terminal - a touchscreen device with a wide slot below into which you insert your mobile phone to complete the payment. Here's a press release announcing the new service from earlier this year. At registration time, you link your phone to your checking account and payments are made by ACH debit. Basically, iBreva appears to be a pre-NFC solution that requires (as does Pay by Touch for its fingerprint-based approach) deployment of new POS reader infrastructure - but avoids any requirement for consumers having to have new mobile phone handsets with NFC chips.

1 comment:

Margaret Gold said...

Good point - I guess it's technically not. I'm not sure what to call it though - is it contact or contactless?

I'd better do my homework ;) !