This past week at Mobile ID World we explored the importance of the end user experience in mCommerce. This was part of our month long focus on the next generation of payments enabled by strong authentication technologies, including biometrics.
mCommerce has been an hot topic in mobile ID for a long time now, recently reaching an ignition point with the release of the Samsung Galaxy S5 and its fingerprint sensor PayPal capabilities. This week the Korean OEM announced that biometrics aren’t going to stop with its current flagship mobile device. According to Samsung senior vice president Rhee In-jong, the possibility of iris biometrics on smartphones is still being explored by the company.
Sticking with Samsung news, at this weeks FIDO Alliance Plenary Meeting, Authentify, Inc announced that it will now support fingerprint biometrics, throwing its support behind the Galaxy S5. As a provider of phone-based, out-of-band authentication and a sponsor level supporter of the FIDO Alliance, Authentify will be supporting the biometric smartphone with the release of Authentify xFA platform version 3.5.
Speaking of the FIDO Alliance, the consortium announced another major global payment organization as a board member: Visa, Inc. The company now sits on the board alongside MasterCard, Discover and PayPal, committing to collaborate in developing FIDO’s universal specifications.
Two reports this week focus on adoption factors in mobile commerce. A report from Research and Markets names cost as one of these factors, mentioning that despite the firm’s projected massive growth of the mobile biometrics market, it will be essential for low priced options to be available to compete with alternatives.
Meanwhile, Deloitte made an announcement that despite the urging of financial institutions, customers are reluctant to bank from their phones. The primary reason behind this reluctance is concern about security, with many untrusting of WiFi and others scared of what might happen in the event of a lost smartphone containing financial information.
Finally, Fingerprint Cards AB (FPC) made two announcements this week, first that it has fully acquired Anacatum Design, and second: that it has launched a new home-button touch sensor for Windows and Android. The FPC1150 is the second touch sensor released by FPC in as many months, a speed that is being attributed directly to working with Anacatum, a Swedish technology licensing and ASIC developing company based out of Linkoping.
Stay posted with Mobile ID World next week as we wrap up mCommerce Month and take a look at biometric airport security in a webinar with our sister site findBIOMETRICS. Be sure to follow us on Twitter to keep the discussion going.
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