Inside Contactless, a leading provider of advanced, open-standard contactless and near field communication (NFC) chip technologies, and Twinlinx, an innovative market entrant providing NFC technology platforms and applications, today revealed they are working together on the integration of Inside`s secure components in the Twinlinx MyMax NFC sticker, and are cooperating to gain type approval from major bank card brands.
INSIDE will be supporting TWINLINX`s initial go-to-market initiatives in North America and other markets as part of INSIDE`s initiative to jumpstart the mobile payments market in 2010. TWINLINX is in discussions with major wireless carriers and transport operators in the U.S. and Europe, and has already established agreements with a number of them.
INSIDE and TWINLINX have worked in partnership since 2008. The MyMax NFC sticker incorporates INSIDE`s award-winning MicroPass payment platform, enabling NFC payment and communication capability to be quickly and easily added to most Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones. INSIDE`s MicroPass is the most widely adopted contactless payment platform, and is approved by all major payment brands.
"The major banks we have approached are very excited by the MyMax NFC sticker because it allows consumers to use their existing mobile phones to conduct mobile payment transactions and run NFC applications, and they have encouraged us to seek type approval from the bank card brands," said Charles Walton, executive vice president for INSIDE Contactless. "Because the MyMax sticker can communicate with a mobile phone, it is able to support NFC operating modes external to the phone, offering banks a way to start NFC mobile payment deployments in 2010."
MyMax is a thin electronic sticker designed to upgrade existing and future Bluetooth phones with NFC functionality and open the door to development and mass deployment of NFC applications, including payment, transport, loyalty, access control and smart posters. MyMax now works with most popular mobile phones and smart phones.
"Our partnership with INSIDE and the power of their MicroPass payment platform are critical elements in the success of our MyMax product," said Jacek Kowalski, TWINLINX founder and CEO. "Payment will be a critical component for a broad range of NFC applications, and we will be working with INSIDE to obtain payment certification for the MyMax product from major bank card brands to help promote widespread consumer adoption of this very compelling technology."