In the world of mobile device-based
contactless payments, three potential security elements have been
earmarked by the major industry bodies as the potential global
standard. The contenders are the SIM card; a secure element
embedded in the handset; and the secure digital memory card
(SDMC).

It is on the SDMC that US mobile payments technology developer
Tyfone has pinned its hopes, seemingly with justification,
following a just-completed beta test of its memory card solution,
u4ia (pronounced euphoria). Conducted in conjunction with Dutch
semiconductor developer and manufacturer NXP Semiconductors, the
trial involved 21 unnamed mobile industry participants.

Hailing the trial as a resounding success, Tyfone anticipates
that it will lead to a significant number of partnerships, market
trials and/or full deployments.

“We believe Tyfone is poised to deliver on the promise of mobile
contactless payments several years ahead of the timeline that
exists in today’s paradigm,” said Tyfone CEO Tom Spitzer.

“Our unique approach overcomes two major barriers – the
availability of NFC [near-field communications] enabled handsets
and the business case conflicts between the industry
stakeholders.”

Underscoring this view, the executive director of industry body
the Financial Services Technology Consortium said that his
organisation believes Tyfone’s SDMC secure element approach is a
viable solution to accelerating the proliferation and adoption of
NFC mobile payments on a global basis.

Specifically, Tyfone’s u4ia solution for mobile contactless
payments has an integrated NFC chipset as the secure element, a
controller and integrated antenna. The technology is compatible
with any SMDC slot (into which the u4ia SDMC is inserted) and in
any form factor of micro, mini or regular size.

SMDC slots are increasingly a standard feature incorporated in
mobile phone production and, according to Tyfone, makes its u4ia
SMDC compatible with “hundreds of millions of phones worldwide.”
Tyfone’s SMDC facilitates over-the-air provisioning of customer
information and applications.

Established in 2004, Tyfone has its US headquarters in Portland,
Oregon and Asian headquarters in Bangalore, India.