For a handful of pioneers, the mobile payments revolution needn't wait for questions about hardware to be resolved. Not when so much is possible with software innovations on existing phones.
Most companies agree that embedding a near-field communication chip in mobile phones is the endgame, but it may be a few years before such devices are widely used. There are still questions about who owns the customer relationships, and introducing new phone hardware will take time as well.
Meanwhile, much of the software infrastructure needed to create a so-called mobile wallet is already available.
"There's a whole other side to the NFC chip" beyond what the hardware can do, said Drew Sievers, chief executive and co-founder of mFoundry Inc. in Larkspur, Calif.
Starbucks Corp. uses software from mFoundry for its mobile app, which displays a bar code to make payments — users hold the phone's screen in front of a special reader, much as they would hold an NFC-equipped phone over a reader at the point of sale once such hardware becomes commonplace.
The Seattle coffee retailer said the true value of its mobile app is not how customers use the phone at the point of sale, but in how they use the phone before they even get to the cash register.
Many shoppers prolong their time at checkout by reloading their prepaid Starbucks cards, slowing down the line of other customers. Since the mobile app lets users check their balances, and if necessary reload the card, at any time, they can do it while they wait in the queue.
"The problem they had to solve was how do we let people reload without disrupting the line," Sievers said.
Chuck Davidson, the category manager for innovation on Starbucks' card team, said through a spokeswoman that "this gives our customers another way to reload their Starbucks card that's fast and convenient."
Shopkick, of Palo Alto, Calif., has also been exploring the potential of software rather than wait for changes in phone hardware.
Its app, available on Apple Inc.'s iPhone and mobile phones using Google Inc.'s Android operating system, lets consumers earn rewards points for walking into retail locations of Target Corp., Macy's Inc., Best Buy Co. Inc. and other participating merchants. Users can also scan bar codes in dressing rooms and tags on specific products to earn further rewards.
Consumers can use the points they earn — called kickbucks — toward gift cards at the merchants.
Adding NFC, which allows for two-way communication between a device and a reader, could make a program like shopkick more applicable to banks or other companies with payments products, said Richard Crone, the chief executive of Crone Consulting LLC in San Carlos, Calif.
For example, a retailer or a bank could let a consumer register a payment card with the app, allowing him or her to use the app to pay for transactions at the point of sale. Enabling a consumer to also see the balance of funds or available credit on the registered card within the app could further increase usage of that card.
"If I'm a retailer and provide the balance for my store credit card but I don't provide the balance information for bank-branded payment types, then they already have a built-in advantage that will help steer the customer," Crone said.
Alternatively, a bank could nudge a consumer to use its card, generating interchange revenue for the issuer, he said.
