[11/09/09] Jim
The first time I heard about Bladox product was when many reports covered the news about iPhone unlock last year. After the successful launch of Apple's iPhone, a Czech based startup, called Bladox, was surprised to found out that the company was in the middle of new business they did not want to be part of it.
Bladox has a circuit card product, called Turbo SIM, which is about wafer-thin. It is designed to allow credit card companies to
help people make payment using their celluar phone via NFC technology. Within weeks of iPhone launch, some people found out the card can be also used to "unlock" iPhone. According to a report by Business Week, this created a high demand in the market for this product until someone published free software solution to unlock iPhone.
The unexpected media coverage about Bladox's product bring more attention about the strength of its technology.
Last month, Silicon Valley based Zenius Solutions announced the integration of its ZeniusMobilePay software with Bladox 's Waver product to enable GSM phones to make secure payment. Currently Mastercard PayPass, Visa payWave, American Express ExpressPay and Discover Network Zip EMV and non-EMV Contactless transactions are supported. This is an interesting development for mobile industry as it allows millions of GSM mobile phones to be retrofitted for interactive NFC.
John Wiese, CEO of Zenius Solutions, indicated that Zenius addresses the problem of lacking interactive NFC-enabled mobile phones and breaks impasses that the NFC industry has faced for years. This add-on opens possible new revenue streams for credit card and phone companies.
The Zenius-enabled Bladox Waver solution fits into the phone's SIM slot along with the original SIM card. The add-on seamlessly and securely integrates with wallet applications on the mobile phone - allowing a consumer to control and access multiple applications dynamically, providing the same functionalities available in NFC capable phones.
The application combinations that could be loaded remotely onto the Waver are diverse and endless, and the Zenius software design ensures that multiple applications - such as transport, payment, and coupons - will be interoperable and compatible. Zenius supplies EMV and non-EMV payment software, as well as a suite of closed-loop applications, to mobile wallet providers, issuing banks, merchants, and add-on hardware manufacturers.
According to Zenius, the software can emulate and accept contactless payment cards on Nokia NFC capable phones and the Zenius-enabled Bladox Waver can interface with platforms including the Apple iPhone, Google Android, and RIM BlackBerry.
Zenius solution can perform the work like Acceptance Device (Reader) Framework that can enables open/closed loop payment acceptance, or NFC Device Framework that can facilitates card emulation, reader/writer, peer-to-peer modes. It also allows Network Services Framework that enables device management, online processing, transaction services. For more information about Zenius' product, please visit www.zeniussolutions.com.
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