Mobile payments

Amazon has purchased GoPago, a company that enables consumers to use mobile apps to prepay for goods before picking them up at a store, according to reports.

Mitek, having successfully promoted its imaging technology as a way to deposit checks and pay bills with a smartphone's camera, is now taking aim at retail payments.

VoiP provider Rebtel has debuted Sendly, an app that allows users to send money to prepaid mobile subscribers in more than 50 countries.

Mobile point of sale services provider I Love Velvet has purchased WeXpay, an electronic wallet company.

Mobile commerce provider Spindle and mobile payment company iPayMobil have partnered to enable merchants to offer credit.

Lemon Inc. has made several significant updates within its mobile wallet this year, moving the storage app to an actual payments-facilitating product. But to scale, Lemon needed a partner with brand recognition, which it found in LifeLock Inc.

Flint is adding a number of new features to its software-based mobile acceptance app, including invoicing, Apple Passbook support and multi-item transactions.

Many companies are already looking past the mobile phone to find the next high-tech payment device. A few companies are also equipping fashion items with Near Field Communication chips and other technology that can be repurposed by the payments industry.

Tim Hortons was quick to take advantage of the host card emulation technology available in Google's new Android KitKat mobile operating system.

Vodafone Germany has debuted a new mobile wallet including the Vodafone SmartPass Visa payment application.

Capital One and PushPoint are planning to launch a system that matches payments activity with other elements of the shopping process, such as a consumer's location in a store, in real time.

Wells Fargo & Co. will link its Visa consumer credit card to the Isis Mobile Wallet in what it calls the "first phase" of an agreement with the payments venture, giving Isis a prominent new supporter shortly after the wallet's nationwide launch.

LifeLock Inc., an identity theft protection provider, has purchased Lemon Inc. and its mobile wallet to absorb Lemon's features into its new LifeLock Wallet app.

Moneris Solutions Corp. has expanded its gift and loyalty program, making it compatible with Apple's Passbook app, which stores other payment and ticketing apps.

The real mobile revolution in opportunity for small business payments is occurring not in consumer wallets, but on the other side of the counter, with disruption in the point of sale terminal market.

The several wearable computing rings being developed have been well-received, but the small devices could have hardware limitations that keep them from widespread use as a payments tool.

MasterCard will enable cardholders at Commonwealth Bank of Australia to load and store payment account credentials on some Samsung handsets, starting with the Galaxy S4.

Square has purchased Evenly, a company that provides services for person-to-person payments. The move heightens Square's competition with PayPal and bolsters its own Square Cash product.

Global Payments and mobile operator 1O1O have launched a mobile point of sale service in Hong Kong.

Mobile wallet providers such as PayPal, Google and LevelUp already allow consumers to add funds by scanning a credit or debit card with a smartphone's camera. Banks can use similar technology to allow customers to open and fund new accounts from a mobile phone.