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Two European card vendors this week introduced contactless-payment stickers consumers may attach to mobile phones or related devices. Gieseckie & Devrient's "Convego Air Mobile" sticker has the "full functionality" of a credit or debit card, according to a statement from the Germany-based company. Consumers use the stickers by tapping them at payment terminals that accept contactless payments. "The pay sticker is an important transitional technology on the way to contactless-payment transactions by cell phone," the vendor says in a statement. Near Field Communication, a short-range, two-way wireless technology that turns mobile phones into a contactless-payment devices using a chip located inside the phone, has seen dozens of tests around the world but no large rollouts. Meanwhile, Franco-German card vendor Sagem Orga GmbH said Tuesday it had launched a similar sticker with France-based Twinlinx, an NFC-technology firm founded by Jacek Kowalski, who was founder and CEO of Inside Contactless, another French company active in NFC payments and contactless stickers. The "MyMax" sticker supports Visa and MasterCard payment applications and also works with Mifare technology found in transit payment cards around the world. "We have already received orders for field trials, and several companies are evaluating use cases," a Sagem spokesperson tells CardLine Global. "We expect first volume commercial orders" in the second quarter of 2010. United States-based processor First Data Corp. and France-based smart card vendor Oberthur Technologies this year also introduced their own contactless stickers.
