Company Notes
Apple Inc.
Some believe company will include NFC chips in the next versions of its iPhone and iPad. They contend Apple is developing a payment network that would rely on its iTunes music service as a source to pay point-of-sale transactions.
Isis
Isis is a mobile-payment joint venture AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon announced in November that plans to route contactless transactions over Discover's network. It would rely on NFC technology to enable consumers to use their mobile phones to pay for purchases at the point of sale.
Square Inc.
Square's system uses a mobile payment-acceptance device that plugs into a smartphone's audio jack. The accompanying software operates on Apple Inc.'s iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad devices. The software also works with smartphones that use Google Inc.'s Android operating system.
Starbucks Corp.
The coffee giant's payment application, which works with Apple Inc.'s iPhone and iPod Touch and some Research in Motion Ltd. BlackBerry devices, enables users to pay for purchases by displaying a bar code on their phone's screen at checkout. The cashier scans the bar code, deducting funds from the customer's prepaid Starbucks Card account. Starbucks just expanded the service to 6,800 locations.
