Mobile payments

HSBC is adding Samsung Pay support in the U.S., given the bank's customers access to all three of the major device operator-driven mobile payment systems.

More big banks are committing to their digital wallet strategies, creating the opportunity to extend their brands into new realms as payments and shopping go mobile under their own brands—but there are some notable holdouts.

The company poised to push the boundaries of mobile computing is ARM Holdings Plc, which has built a business designing chips that squeeze the most out of limited battery capacity on mobile devices, dominating 85 percent of the market.

Verifone Inc. still faces challenges in certain aspects of its business, but the terminal manufacturer is learning with experience how to fit into the fast-changing world of omnichannel technology.

Frontier's old school way of processing in-flight payments sounds like a classic luggage nightmare—the passenger arrives at the destination days beforehand, if not longer.

Despite improvements in technology, most consumers remain skeptical of mobile wallets, often testing them once or twice before abandoning the idea and returning to traditional payment methods.

Inside nearly every smartphone, tablet, e-reader and smartwatch are tiny microprocessors that tell the machine what to do. Small pulses of energy move from a gadget’s battery through millions of tiny transistors, triggering commands and responses in nanoseconds, be it playing games, posting to Facebook, sending texts, or taking pictures.

Even though Olympics sponsor Visa may have the biggest mobile payments presence at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in Brazil in two weeks, Samsung Electronics plans to attend the games as well by launching its mobile wallet in the country at a time when hundreds of thousands of visitors are expected.

The payment-enabled fingernails project -- and the surrounding media attention -- demonstrates that wearable payments have become more than just experimental.

An NFC-based mobile wallet and the bold creation of Canada’s largest wireless carriers, suretap looked promising at first. But in the end, it couldn't keep up with juggernauts like Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay.

If members here are not excited by loan payment options such as online bill pay or dropping a check in the mail, they can pay be text—and 80% of members who sign up for this virtual service actually use it.

Nintendo is known for taking an experimental approach to making video games, and this same mindset carries over to how it handles money. The company's hardware, software and business strategies show a forward-thinking strategy for payment acceptance.

Wearables have made a major breakthrough in the last two years. I believe that in several sectors including payments they are now mainstream technology rather than a minor tributary.

Under the hood, the new Masterpass ties directly to banks' own digital wallets with support for Near Field Communication-based mobile payments via Android devices and the ability to centralize features for supported cards, including balance display and purchase alerts, and support for paying with loyalty points.

USAA now offers voice-guided check deposit on its mobile app for visually impaired customers.

Google will provide McDonald's customers in San Jose, Calif., this weekend with free burgers as a promotion for its Hands Free payment app at any of 47 participating restaurants.

The hit smartphone game Pokemon Go is not a mobile wallet or a loyalty app, but it is arguably far more successful at driving traffic to retailers' stores than many of the apps designed for that purpose.

Starbucks Corp. is taking its highly success mobile payment app into China, a country in which consumers have quickly adopted mobile payment methods.

Android Pay is now a payment option for users of the food-ordering apps Grubhub and Seamless, both of which are products of Grubhub Holdings Inc.

MasterCard has taken a broad view of the "smart cities" concept, working with multiple organizations toward a common goal.