BLOGS

A recent pilot involving 3,141 Citibank credit cardholders who purchased Near Field Communication-enabled phones that allowed them to pay for goods at 250 merchant locations in Bangalore, India has been deemed a success, but rollout could be a long way off. According to Citibank, "Nearly 50,000 payments were completed throughout the 26-week span, which began in July 2009, and participants made purchases more frequently, spending a greater amount with each transaction while using the mobile phones than they did using ordinary credit cards." That's the good news, the bad news is, the Nokia 6212 phone utilized in the Bangalore pilot was considered outdated, compared with non-NFC mobile phones available on the market, which means a big commitment will be needed from device providers before mobile phone payments become commonplace at retail. RFID Journal (3/8)

AMR, Bentonville, Geneva, measuring metrics, Near Field Communication, regulatory compliance, SAP, SCM, supply chain, supply chain management, survey, Switzerland,