Rumor: Citigroup developing branded NFC phone
Apr 4 2008
It’s all over the web, that according to a report filed with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, Citigroup is working on Citi-branded NFC mobile phone…
The clash has begun: network carriers vs. financial institutions…
And it is great to see someone actually getting serious beyond pure trials. Enough trials! Let’s get real, go to market… Deploying, seeding the market is what is needed to promote adoption.
Next phase on the NFC and related mobile payment battlefield: who is going to own the subscriber; the carrier (via the SIM card), the financial institution, or whom?
ceo
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Ash Haque
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why would they develop their own phone, and thus compete with mobile operators, when they could just put NFC payments on a card like eg. Oyster+Barclaycard?
i guess you can in theory do more, but how much more does a bank need to do than enable payments…
Ah… yes, because the trend is that people will be shifting their use towards that little device, the cellphone. You can search the web, communicate and share, and do secure mobile transactions.
Why they are doing their own? Because the network providers here in the US are *not* ordering the phones from the phone manufacturers, and are delaying adoption; all they do are trials and more trials. But the benefits are well understood already; time to go to market.
ceo