Visa Europe launches a contact-less payment system in Turkey. Customers of Akbank with a Blackberry enabled by a microSD card can now pay for goods.
Using NFC technology in a microSD called the In2Pay, the In2Pay card can still act as a storage expansion as well, so users do not give up memory to make use of the service.
Visa will expand this micro-SD programme to include HTC, Samsung, LG, Nokia and Motorola phones in the near future while it waits for NFC handsets to gain in the market.
To some analysts, in the iPhone era RIM is on its way to becoming a mostly mid-to-low-end smartphone brand, stuck with low-end customers and low margins.
The BlackBerry maker has different ideas, of course.
RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie is talking up its new BlackBerry 6 platform and devices (coming in Q3 2010). He says RIM will have "a quantum leap over anything that's out there."
The trend in the enterprise is a shift toward personally owned devices, so RIM is thinking more these days about consumers and the retailers that reach them.
Back to the channel… Google launched the Nexus One with grand plans to radically change the way consumers purchased phones.
Now the company says it will stop selling handsets online and instead partner with carriers to sell the N1 in-store. And use its own website to promote Android phones available globally.
Google says customers simply wanted a hands-on experience before buying a phone... D'uhhhh.
The MHL standard features a single cable with a low pin-count interface able to support up to 1080p HD video and digital audio while simultaneously providing power to the mobile device.
Nokia, Samsung, Silicon Image, Sony Corp. and Toshiba form the MHL (Mobile High-Definition Link) Consortium to develop a new mobile audio/video interface standard for directly connecting mobile phones and other portable CE devices to HDTVs and displays.
The MHL Consortium also announces the availability of an abridged draft specification available.
Martijn Hoogeveen, CEO for ICEcat, says their e-catalog analysis after the first 4 months in 2010 shows 10 brands who out-perform others in the Top One Hundred online channel brands. The top three are Dell, Trust and Brodit.
"Brodit is a surprise. It is a Swedish mobile phone accessory provider, which data has become available for online channel partners. Especially, its compatibility table (shows which holder fits which mobile and which car model) is gold, and makes the company the Kingston of mobile accessories," says Hoogeveen.
Go Brodit
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