CreditCall’s CardEase POS mobile app for
iPhones is facing “technical issues”, throwing its scheduled launch
of early next year into doubt.
The launch of the payment services provider’s
app for BlackBerry is on course for the middle of next
month, but migrating the technology onto the iPhone is proving
difficult despite Apple’s co-operation, according to Peter Turner,
CreditCall’s CEO.
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“We are still investigating how the CardEase
app will have to evolve for the iPhone,” Turner told
CI.
“The core software remains exactly as it is
for the BlackBerry, but certain technical issues have arisen which
I cannot disclose due to a confidentiality agreement with
Apple.”
The payment application which is downloaded
onto the smartphone is linked to a separate PIN Pad via Bluetooth
where the card is read and the user’s PIN entered. The data is
encrypted while in transit and then sent over a wireless network to
authorise the transaction. A receipt is then sent to the customer
by email, SMS or in paper format from an optional printer.
Earlier this month the 100th
Quarterly Survey of Small Business in Britain, conducted by
The Open University Business School, Barclays and accountancy
organisation ACCA, found that nearly half of all UK SMEs are using
their smartphones for business and payment purposes. A figure that
Turner believes will continue to grow.
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By GlobalDataTurner advised that approximately 30
value-added resellers (VARs) have committed to pilot CardEase for
BlackBerry as soon as it becomes available.
“The launch of the app is targeted towards
VARs,” said Turner.
“While we are keen to talk to end users, it
will be the VARs who are going to make this a solution that end
users will find highly desirable.”
Turner said there are no technical issues
with creating smartphones that come complete with the payment app
in the future, but it seems the PIN Pad will remain a separate
entity.
“We foresee the PIN entry device continuing to
stay as a separate device as it does have to go through the very
rigorous PCI PED criteria. At the moment it doesn’t seem to be
feasible or cost effective to get to that level of approval using a
mobile phone.”
Research by one of CreditCall’s clients
found that people are far less willing to put their PIN into
something that looks like someone else’s mobile phone.
However this doesn’t mean the PIN Pad can’t
evolve. Turner claims it is ready for contactless capability and is
the ideal device to place a high level of biometric
certification.
“Fingerprint, iris and voice recognition can
all be placed onto the PIN Pad very easily,” said Turner.
“The combined intellect of the world wide web,
banks and e-commerce has not come up with anything better than the
password concept, which has been around for thousands of years.
There are certainly moves within the industry towards biometric
technology but nothing that would give you a realistic date
yet.”
