Tyfone Inc. is working with the smartphone accessory company Dexim Inc. to offer a sleeve that attaches to Apple Inc.'s iPhone to support contactless payments worldwide.
The sleeve uses Tyfone's SideTap microSD chip technology. Tyfone, of Portland, Ore., said in an e-mail that it initially plans to offer the iPhone sleeve to merchants and financial institutions to distribute to their customers, but ultimately consumers will be able to buy SideTap-enabled cards directly.
The sleeve, which also provides protection for the iPhone, has a slot to house the Tyfone SideTap microSD card, a secure memory card built with contactless payments technology. The sleeve also has built-in circuitry interfacing the 30-pin iPhone connector to a memory card slot, enabling iPhone apps to communicate with the SideTap smart card chip.
A miniature antenna and onboard controller ensure consumers can securely store and update any bank account, credit card, prepaid card and other payment information, Tyfone said in a press release Monday.
An application enables users to select from the phone which payment information to use when checking out at retail stores, paying at restaurants and even when using public transportation by tapping against a contactless point of sale terminal.
Tyfone said its technology also lets the microSD card function as a memory card, enabling users to increase the available storage of their phones.
"SideTap cards allow storage of your music and pictures, but also allow for secure storage of account information on the smart card chip," the company said in its e-mail.
Separately, Tyfone has struck an agreement with Sutherland Global Services of Rochester, N.Y., a provider of business process outsourcing services.
The companies will combine on a single platform Sutherland's financial services domain experience and global capabilities with Tyfone's ability to deliver mobile financial services and payments functionality.
In doing so, the companies said they can extend "any banking product to any mobile phone or any operating system over any network."
The partnership was announced Monday.
