Apple said to be making big mobile payment move with recent hire
Hiring of Near Field Communications expert Benjamin Vigier could turn iPhone 5 into a mobile wallet
Computerworld - Apple could be making plans for a big role in mobile Near Field Communications (NFC) with the recent hiring of Benjamin Vigier as its product manager of mobile commerce.
Future iPhones and other Apple devices could be converted to mobile wallets, allowing users to quickly pass or tap a phone over a receiver using the NFC short-range wireless specification.
Nokia has made inroads in NFC, but is not considered a strong mobile phone competitor in the U.S.
"Apple could finally bring NFC to the masses," wrote NFC expert Bob Egan, global head of research for Tower Group, in a tweet Monday, regarding the hiring of Vigier.
Egan noted too that Apple is a "magical marketing powerhouse" with a large patent portfolio and widespread distribution alliances that would help Vigier and Apple.
Part of Egan's optimism is based on Vigier's strong resume, as detailed on LinkedIn.
Neither Vigier nor Apple could be reached for comment on his role at the company. Vigier arrived at Apple in July, and previously was product manager for mobile wallet, payment and NFC at mFoundry, where he conceived and managed the Starbucks mobile payment system on the iPhone and Paypal Mobile, which is featured on the BlackBerry and some other phones.
Computerworld blogger Jonny Evans said the Vigier hiring is a sign that Apple is "moving forward fast" into NFC, possibly with the iPhone 5 next year.
Evans noted a 2009 Apple patent for building an NFC antenna into a touch screen, as well as other patents for ticketing and even use of the service name iPay.
NFC is most popular in Japan, and adoption in the U.S. is considered slow, perhaps due to U.S. consumers' concerns about security with mobile payments. Generator Research recently said that mobile payments would hit $633 billion in 2014, up from $68 billion in 2009.
Gartner said recently that mobile payments would reach the mainstream in 2012, when 3% of all mobile device users will be making mobile payments. While a small percentage of the total, that represents 190 million users.
Gartner puts NFC in a list of mobile payment technologies that also includes SMS (Short Message Service), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and Unstructure Supplementary Service Data (USSD), which is not used in the U.S.
In other payment system news, Google said Monday that it bought Jambool, a company that makes a platform for managing online payments for virtual goods sold on gaming and social networking sites.
Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld. Follow Matt on Twitter at
@matthamblen or subscribe to
Matt's RSS feed. His e-mail address is mhamblen@computerworld.com.
Read more about Mobile Apps and Services in Computerworld's Mobile Apps and Services Topic Center.



- Excel 2010 Cheat Sheet
- Register for this Computerworld Insider Cheat Sheet and gain access to hundreds of premium content articles, guides, product reviews and more.
- Empowering Your Mobile Worker
- Today's most productive employees are mobile, and your company's IT strategy must be ready to support them with 24/7 access to the business...
- Overcome Top 7 Admin Challenges of Active Directory
- As Active Directory's role in the enterprise has drastically increased, so has the need to secure the data. Gain insight on creating repeatable,...
- Insiders Can Ruin Your Company. Take Action.
- Did you know that 80 percent of threats to an organization come from the inside? The threat from insiders is often overlooked in...
- Top Solutions and Tools to Prevent Devastating Malware
- Custom malware frequently goes undetected. According to Forrester Research, the best way to reduce risk of breach is to deploy file integrity monitoring...
- Streamline Compliance and Increase ROI
- Streamline, simplify, and automate compliance related activities; especially those that impact multiple business units. This white paper from NetIQ, outlines solutions that will... All Mobile Apps and Services White Papers
- Optimizing Networks for the Cloud
- Join guest speaker, Rohit Mehra, IDC Director of Enterprise Communications Infrastructure, to explore current trends, discuss best practices for optimizing Data Center and...
- Apps QuickStart Series Part 2: Designing and Deploying SQL Server on VMware vSphere
- Download this webcast to learn about the design considerations for virtualizing SQL workloads, performance and scalability information and high-availability options, as well as...
- Apps QuickStart Series Part 1: Designing and Deploying Exchange 2010 on VMware vSphere
- Download this webcast to learn the virtual hardware design considerations for Exchange 2010, deployment using the building block approach, options for high-availability and...
- Customer Spotlight: How IPC The Hospitalist Company Implemented Oracle on VMware
- Have you been looking to hear about customer's experiences with the new VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager product? View this webcast to learn...
- Virtualize Business-Critical Applications with Confidence
- Virtualizing business-critical applications has become a key focus for organizations as they move along their virtualization journey. With the launch of VMware vSphere®... All Mobile Apps and Services Webcasts