Tyfone Inc. is partnering with smartphone-accessory company Dexim Inc. to offer a sleeve that attaches to Apple Inc.’s iPhone to support contactless payments worldwide using Tyfone’s SideTap microSD chip technology, the companies announced Feb. 28.
Portland, Ore.-based Tyfone 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 company stated in an e-mail to PaymentsSource.
The sleeve, which also provides protection for the iPhone, has a slot to house the Tyfone SideTap microSD card, a secure memory card integrated with contactless payments technology. This 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 notes in a news release.
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’s technology leaves the memory card functionality intact, enabling users to increase the available storage of their iPhones for saving any kind of digital information, according to Tyfone.
“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 noted in the e-mail.
Separately, Tyfone announced Feb. 28 an agreement with Rochester, N.Y.-based Sutherland Global Services, which provides business process outsourcing services.
Under the partnership, the companies will combine on a single platform Sutherland’s financial-services domain experience and global presence with Tyfone’s ability to deliver mobile financial services and payments functionality. In doing so, the companies say they can extend “any banking product to any mobile phone or any operating system over any network,” according to a news release.
