ROAM Data just announced that it has a prototype of an NFC and Magnetic Stripe card reader.   Why would someone want to have both an NFC reader AND a mag stripe card reader?  Simple, it will take years before enough consumers have NFC enabled cards or mobile devices making a pure-play NFC reader impractical.

Think about ISIS and Google Wallet.  Neither of them can get much traction right now because there are not enough consumers with NFC devices in their hands, and many of those who do have an NFC enabled device aren’t using it for payments (I have a Galaxy Nexus and I do not use it for payments.)  Google and others can continue to invest in getting NFC readers into as many retailers as they can, but if the consumers don’t follow, the retailers won’t invest in upkeep, or counter space for the readers for long.   Many (and we are included,) think that NFC will have a significant place in the future of payments, but how it’s going to get there, and what technology standards will be adopted is still up in the air.

With ROAM’s dual-purpose reader, a mobile merchant or brick and mortar store can now accept both NFC and mag-stripe card payments with minimal additional investment.  ROAM has seen significant interest in it’s dongle and ROAMpay API from major market retailers that don’t want to be trapped by OS or form factor when designing their line busting or other in-store mobile initiatives.  iOS and Android are both supported (as is BlackBerry, but very few clients in the US are requesting the BlackBerry API) so if retailers want to use an iPad, Galaxy Tab, Motorola Xoom, or some other device with a different form factor, chances are ROAM’s solutions will work.   Now local artists, or food trucks can accept NFC payments, alongside Tier One merchants.   All types of merchants can dip their toes in the future of contactless payments without having to commit hundreds of dollars per terminal.

Some may think this new dongle is like the DVD and VHS combo players that emerged in the early 2000’s, and they’d be right.  At one time a lot of people had them so they could watch both their old VHS tapes and the new DVDs.  Nowadays, those machines are relics, but how long did they last?  I bet a good number of people reading this are still using one somewhere in their house.  We are not expecting this dongle to be the end-all-be-all of mobile payments.  Some clients might want to stay with mag stripe; some might want to go NFC only.  ROAM can do both.

Eventually, the more secure platform that is EMV will make its way to the United States, and ROAM will have an answer way before it becomes mandatory.  Until NFC becomes more mainstream, it is difficult to justify the investment in NFC only readers, so having a hybrid is the right call for now.

- Robert Stringer

While Square has given away approximately 500,000 unencrypted readers to anyone who signs up for one, ROAM Data has sold approximately 300,000 secure readers to leading merchant service providers (MSPs) who compete with Square, making ROAM the largest supplier of encrypted mobile card readers by an order of magnitude.  We expect to have shipped over 1 million units by this time next year.  The reason for ROAM’s success is in part due to its patent pending hardware and software design that not only prevents various types of card fraud common with Square’s solution, it also provides a more robust read rate and is compatible with the most number of mobile devices in the industry.

ROAM’s entire system was designed with PCI security from the start.  According to the company, the audio wave hack done on Square at the Blackhat conference last week would not work on ROAM’s solutions, because ROAM’s readers fully encrypt the track data before it reaches the phone and the data can only be decrypted by a secure payment server, which would not recognize third party audio signals from recorded files.  The kind of attack described at Blackhat primarily hurts MSPs with unencrypted audio readers, but the bigger issue to the industry as a whole is the number of unencrypted readers being passed out and used for skimming as described in April this year in the media when Square’s reader was used to skim track data by an unauthorized app.  ROAM had the security foresight to design their solution against these kinds of payment fraud, and thus protect their customers and partners.

Some may deflect this problem as a general mag-stripe issue, and some have argued for chip cards or other more secure means. But the reality is that, for a variety of reasons, mag stripes in our wallets will be around for a long time to come, (we have not even gotten rid of cash yet after decades of trying) – Therefore, those providing payment services with mag stripe have a serious responsibility to make their services as secure as they possibly can.  ROAM has taken the steps to do so, and will continue to innovate and lead on providing secure solutions, be they mag stripe, EMV or NFC.”

For a deeper comparison of ROAM vs. Square readers, see the attached photos of the internals. One can immediately notice that Square has no electronic components other than the magnetic head tied to an audio jack.  When a card is swiped, an analog signal is generated and transmits the track data in the open via the audio jack to the phone, where a piece of software is used to decode the data.

One can immediately notice that Square has no electronic components other than the magnetic head tied to an audio jack.  When a card is swiped, an analog signal is generated and transmits the track data in the open via the audio jack to the phone, where a piece of software is used to decode the data.

Problems with the Square design:

1.  Without electronics, it is incapable of encrypting the track data before it arrives on the mobile device. Thus the Square reader can be used by any rogue app as a skimmer with zero hardware change.
2. If you swipe too slow or too fast the data fails to be captured by the software program on the phone, leading to poor read rates.
3. The physical design has a short “throw length” (guide that keeps the magnetic card from wobbling during swipe) leading to poor read rates.
4. Without electronics it cannot control the communication protocol between the swiper and certain mobile devices like Blackberry and certain Android devices, thus reducing device reach.

In contrast, when looking at the ROAMswipe internals, the patent pending design is packed with sophisticated electronics that enable power to be generated via sound waves sent by the phone instead of a battery. When a swipe occurs, track data is instantly captured on the reader by the electronics, it is digitized and encrypted by the microprocessor on board, then transmitted via a proprietary communication protocol to the mobile device with compatible software, and then sent to a secure payment server where it is decrypted and passed to the payment processor. This unique design enables ROAM to have superior security, better read rates, and the largest device reach possible.

ROAM’s team has years of experience delivering mobile phone POS solutions to market, and ROAM owns or has licensed a number of granted and pending patents in this space, including exclusive rights to certain IP that are critical for development of these readers.

ROAM Data further provides a full turnkey software solution that can be branded for its MSP partners, from app to provisioning to support portal. ROAM also provides a set of API and tools that allow developers to build their own apps using ROAM’s secure readers and mCommerce infrastructure that is tied to vast majority of payment providers in the country.

As of 6/6/2011, we officially offer ROAMpay Swipe support for 28 Android Devices, 7 Apple iOS devices, and 16 BlackBerry devices, for a total of 51 mobile devices.  Here is the breakdown by carrier:

• Verizon: 19
• AT&T: 9
• T-Mobile: 10
• Sprint: 10

note: iPod Touch & iPad are not counted as carrier distributed devices

Most recently, we’ve added support for the Verizon iPhone 4, the iPad 2 as well as various Android devices including the HTC Thunderbolt, Samsung Droid Charge, HTC Droid Incredible 2 and the Motorola Xoom Tablet.  I will now briefly summarize changes in the smart phone landscape since Q1 2011, broken down by OS, along with my thoughts on ROAM’s strategy towards approaching device support.

RIM/BlackBerry

Q4 2010 and Q1 2011 brought to us announcements of some of the most advanced smart phones the consumer market has seen to date.  With most of their BlackBerry handsets desperately in need of a refresh, all eyes were on RIM to make some major product announcements at its BlackBerry World 2011 Conference that would declare that they would not be left behind by the competition.  While only one new device was unveiled, it arrived bearing an impressive spec sheet as well as an updated OS.  The BlackBerry Bolt 9900/9930 stands to be the flagship handset that BlackBerry users have waited years for, bearing a 1.2GHz processor, 2.8-inch capacitive touchscreen, full QWERTY keyboard, 5 megapixel camera with 720p HD video recording, as well as a thinner more forward thinking aesthetic.  It will also be the first device running BlackBerry 7 OS, which offers HTML 5, universal search and more. And perhaps more relevant to the mobile payment industry, this new BlackBerry Bold will be the first device from RIM to include built-in support for NFC.  The 9900 is slated to land at T-Mobile “later this year” and the 9930 will most likely wind up on Verizon.

Unfortunately, with a release date yet to be announced, this promising handset may be too-little, too-late for RIM to keep a grip on it’s position as a serious competitor in the smartphone market.  Securities Analyst Matthew Robison recently vocalized his assessment that RIM is in an unrecoverable position with regards to it’s crash from dominance in the consumer market for smartphones, going as far as to downgrade his target price on the company’s shares to $46 from $76.  Recent figures from ComScore on smartphone platform market share support Mr. Robison’s stance.  RIM’s market share dropped 4.7 percentage points to 25.7%, down from 30.4%, and lowering them to the #3 position behind Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS.

RIM also launched their first tablet, the BlackBerry Playbook, on April 19, 2011 and has received largely positive reviews from within the tech community.  Analysts have debated what sales figures are looking like, but RIM has stated that they will provide a business update on BlackBerry PlayBook results on June 16, 2011.

As other OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) partner with the likes of Google and Microsoft as well as the carriers and maintain the already high pace of bringing devices to market, it will only make it more difficult for RIM to stay relevant amongst consumers.  They will need to make a much stronger presence in Q3 & Q4 2011.

Apple/iOS

Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs introduced their newest tablet computer, the iPad 2, on March 2, 2011 to what we’ve come to know as the typical amount of hype and anticipation for the company’s products.  Within hours, many retailers had already been completely cleaned out of their stock and customers would have to wait weeks for new shipments.  Sporting a much thinner and lighter body as well as a front-facing camera and a new dual core Apple A5 processor, the iPad 2 was expected to break sales record.  While Apple hasn’t released numbers on the second generation tablet’s individual sales, on June 6 2011 during WWDC 2011 it was confirmed that 200 million iOS devices had been sold to date, including 25 million iPads.  This is about a 10 million increase from the 15 million iPads that Steve Jobs said had been sold prior to the release of the iPad 2.  ROAM was fast to bring support for the iPad 2, and are proud to say that we now offer support for every iOS device being actively sold by retailers today.

While no new iPhones were announced during WWDC, the next generation of Apple’s mobile operation system, iOS 5, was unveiled to the public.  A combination of UI enhancements and new features, the new software will be available for the iPhone 4 and 3GS, iPad 1 and 2, and iPod touch 3rd and 4th generation.  We can safely assume that when a new iPhone arrives later this year, that it will be running a version if iOS 5, so I would not be too surprised if more details about hardware capabilities of the new handset surface once the developer community has some time with the SDK.

According to ComScore figures, Apple controls about a quarter of the smart phone OS market share.

Google/Android

On June 6, 2011, we added support for 5 new Android devices: HTC Droid Incredible 2 (Verizon), HTC Thunderbolt (Verizon), Samsung Droid Charge (Verizon), Samsung Galaxy S 4G (T-Mobile), and the Samsung Replenish (Sprint). Since Q4 2010, over a dozen new Android devices have hit the U.S. market and the momentum doesn’t seem to be slowing down one bit.  A Gartner Research report showed that, in light of a 19% increase in smart phone sales worldwide in Q1 2011 from Q1 2010, Android saw their global market share increase 26.4% with regards to smart phone sales to end users, placing them squarely on top at 36%.  The ComScore report focusing on the U.S. market solidified Google’s dominance, with Android growing 7.0 percentage points to 33% of the smart phone OS market share in February 2011, up from 26% in November 2010.  Carriers have certainly played a major role in helping boost Android sales, with many of the new handsets and tablets being marketed as ‘4G’ devices, offering lightening fast data speeds and overall improved user experience.  ROAM is currently working on bringing peripheral support to these devices as well as many others that are on the horizon.

Google has also been placing more resources into developing their Android OS for tablets, Honeycomb. The Motorola Xoom was the first tablet released running the newest confectionery OS offering.  Back in January 2011, Strategy Analytics released figures showing that Android tablets were actually gaining some traction.  In Q4 2010, global tablet shipments reached 10 million units, with Android capturing 22% of the global marketshare and Apple falling to a still impressive 75% down from 95% in Q3 2010.  However, even with Samsung, Asus, LG and others releasing Android tablets, one can expect that the sales figures of the iPad 2 have shifted the balance further in favor of Apple in the consumer tablet landscape.

Windows Phone 7 (currently unsupported)

Though the platform is backed by a giant in computing and pioneer in the smartphone industry, Microsoft continued to see their smartphone platform market share dip, down 1.3 percentage points to 6.7% in April 2011 from 8.0% in January 2011.  Several top executives in the industry including LG’s global head of marketing strategy and planning, James Choi, and AT&T Mobility CEO, Ralph de la Vega, have voiced their concerns over WP7 sales not meeting expectations.  While no firm numbers have been revealed, Nielsen Mobile Insights reported WP7 to have a mere 1% of the U.S. smartphone market share.  Another analyst, Eldar Murtazin, estimated back in May 2011 that although Microsoft has shipped 1.5 million handsets worldwide, the company has only sold 674,000 handsets to end users.

Microsoft has no plans on giving up on Windows Phone 7.  An update to the platform announced in May, dubbed Mango, adds over 100 new features to WP7 and Microsoft’s new strategic partner Nokia has maintained they will ship their first Windows Phone product in Q4 2011.  With Nokia committed to the Windows platform the path is still paved for the tandem to produce a great line up high performing handsets with a unified user experience, a problem that has drawn critiques from Android users.  However, these purported handsets will have to hit the market first before they can win the hearts and minds of consumers.

HP/Palm (currently unsupported)

To date, only one of the new WebOS devices HP announced back in February has hit the market.  The HP Veer 4G hit Best Buy and AT&T shelves May 15, 2011.  Early sales figures haven’t been released, but at a relatively affordable $99.99, the Veer will test the consumer market’s reception to HP branded handsets as the successor to the Palm line.  The HP Pre³ and HP TouchPad are still planned for availability this summer, but carriers or pricing have yet to be announced.  ComScore’s report on smartphone platform market share shows that HP/Palm dropped 0.6 percentage points to 2.6% in April 2011 down from 3.2% in January 2011.

Let ROAM worry about Mobile

One of our most important goals with getting new devices on our list is maintaining backwards compatibility.  Our aim is to support our current clients while also giving our clients the flexibility and edge of having compatibility with the latest and greatest phones on the market.  Our team of experts is constantly researching and identifying the latest phones and operating systems give our clients the widest range of hardware options.  ROAM Data worries about mobile so our clients can focus on their core business.

For years, Americans have gazed enviously from afar as other parts of the world purchased everything from train rides to restaurant dinners simply by tapping or waving their phones. More and more of our daily activities have migrated from home computers and onto our smart phones and the general public has been growing restless waiting for the same migration to happen with card payments.  While the adoption of contactless payment systems has been slow taking off here in the United States, evidence has come out recently that may prove that the dream of using your phone as a mobile wallet is right around the corner.  The most interesting detail to witness will be how the banks, card issuers, hardware manufacturers, and carriers define their roles in order to create a viable NFC payment ecosystem that both customers and merchants will believe in.

In December 2010, Google announced their second “unified Google phone,” the Nexus S by Samsung.  This was the first phone to run Android 2.3, known as Gingerbread, which is the first incarnation of the smart phone OS to offer NFC support.  The Nexus S has NFC capabilities built into the handset as well.  But this isn’t the only piece of evidence supporting Google’s desire to enter the NFC payments arena.  Bloomberg reported in March that Google was planning to test a mobile-payment service in New York and San Francisco and pay for thousands of shops to install special NFC enabled register systems made by VeriFone.  Lending more truth to this is the most recent report that the search engine giant would also be testing their mobile payment platform with Ingenico.  The Wall Street Journal went even further to add that MasterCard and Citigroup would also be taking part in this project.

Earlier this year, evidence also leaked that revealing that Bank of America and Research In Motion will be running another trial program this spring that would allow customers to make purchases using BlackBerry devices equipped with RFID enabled microSD cards.  These payments will be able to be made anywhere Mastercard’s PayPass is accepted.  Mastercard has not commented on their potential role in this program.

The most compelling venture into the mobile payment sphere might come by way of 3 of the major U.S. wireless carriers and Discover Financial Services, who have come together with their own NFC payment solution called ISIS.  Consisting of Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile USA (the latter two, who may become a single entity in the near future), the carrier coalition will almost certainly launch with a system partially based on direct carrier billing, where customers can have their purchases billed to their cell phone bill rather than tacked onto their credit card balance.

And of course, there is the big question that we cannot seem to stop asking: will the Apple iPhone 5 support NFC?  It was first deemed a no brainer that the next incarnation of the landscape changing smart phone would include NFC technology, until reports emerged that the Cupertino company would not arrive with NFC support due to a lack of a clear standard for the payment technology.  This statement has some truth to it; there is currently a divide within the industry on whether the NFC element should reside on the phone itself or the SIM card, which would essentially decide whether the carriers or handset manufacturers controlled the data. However, recent reports claim that the inclusion of NFC support in the next iPhone is still quite possible.  Apple product releases have always been successful at generating plenty of activity in the rumor mills with regard to feature sets, but it is with good reason: analysts and industry insiders know the influence that Apple has in shaping the landscape of new technology due to their ability to sell their product products and catalyze widespread adoption.

Based purely on the number and size of the major players invested in an NFC mobile payment system, it is clear that the stakes are high.  These architects have come to agreement about the need for such a system and the security required, but there are loose ends that must be tied before anyone can claim victory.  The potential issue of fragmentation must be kept to a minimum.  A fragmented landscape that would mean purchasing a variety of expensive NFC payment acceptance terminals will prove to be huge barrier if it isn’t continuously subsidized by the payment players, handset manufacturers or carriers themselves.  Will these powerful entities be willing to forgo some profits and make concessions for the sake of a unified NFC payment system?  The reality is that they cannot afford not to.  After missing the boat and failing to gain traction when NFC systems were introduced in the past, the stakes are higher than ever to win the trust of consumers and merchants.

Last week, Verifone called out Square, for them to withdraw their unencrypted audio reader from the marketplace.  We understand and appreciate the issue and we can assure everyone that merchants using the ROAMswipe, under ROAM’s name or white labeled for our partners have full encryption from swipe to settlement.   ROAMswipe is now carried and resold by hundreds of Merchant Service Providers (MSPs), from First Data, Chase Paymentech, to Intuit Go Payment, Sage and others.  You can find more information on our encryption method here.

ROAM Data’s founders have their background in mobile security and payments.   We considered creating a non-encrypted card reader, but chose not to because we did not believe it was in the best interest of the industry or ultimately, our bottom line.  Instead we developed our encrypted secure card reader, and have the ownership or license to all relevant IP to our solution.  In our opinion, it is the responsibility of both the MSPs and equipment providers to deliver the most convenient and secure solution to the market.  It is simply in the best interest of the entire electronic payments industry to do so.

As we mentioned in our blog post last week, there is always a mix of trust and risk in any electronic transaction, and we agree with Verifone that hardware manufacturers do not want to be a player in the ecosystem that adds risk to the equation.  Relying on the card issuing banks to make up for any security flaws in the system post fraud is simply passing the buck and bad for the industry.   Verifone’s letter was not aimed at the consumer or at the small merchant, but rather at the issuing banks and their partners: Visa, MasterCard and American Express who issue security guidelines for the entire ecosystem to ensure its long term health.

To reduce risk, Square could use encrypted swipers integrated into their application, ROAM has a developed an industry leading solution with legitimate IP on the solution, we are happy to source it to Square but it is up to them to address the real security issue at hand.  We hope that Square will address this important security issue which is very preventable with modest amount of cost.  Otherwise the cost will be spread to the issuers and other non-square merchants, and certainly no consumers wants the hassles of identity theft either.  The ball is now in Square’s court.

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Click here to go to the CTIA voting page for ROAMpay

Samsung currently has Android tablets in two different sizes 7- and 10-inches.  Speculation is that Samsung will release an 8.9 inch tablet on March 22nd at CTIA.  Between these three tablets, we know that there will be at least two different versions of Android for developers to grapple with, as the 7-inch Galaxy Tab current runs Android 2.2 (Froyo) and the 10-inch Galaxy Tab runs Android 3.0 (Honeycomb).

During Mobile World Congress HTC also announced its first tablet, the HTC Flyer, a 7-inch tablet running Android 2.2.

Motorola and LG have also stepped foot into the tablet arena with 10 inch tablets, both running Honeycomb.  Motorola’s tablet, the Xoom, was released on February 24th making them the first to market with a tablet running Android 3.0.  However, Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha has hinted that their strategy included releasing a family of tablets, including a 7-inch model.  There is no word as to what version of Android this device could run, but based on HTC’s to-be-released 7-inch tablet running Froyo and silence from Samsung on whether their 7-inch Galaxy Tab will receive a Honeycomb upgrade, it isn’t unreasonable to believe that Motorola’s tablet family may be fragmented in terms of the operating systems they will run.

In September of 2010, Research In Motion announced their entry into the tablet market, the BlackBerry Playbook.  This 7-inch device will be running a brand new QNX based operating system, BlackBerry Tablet OS.  Their equally as new WebWorks Toolkit allows developers to create applications that are compatible with BlackBerry Tablet OS and BlackBerry OS 6, the newest version of their phone OS.  However, this fragmentation still poses a hurdle for developers who have previously created apps on the BlackBerry platform.

And if the current state of the tablet market didn’t have enough diversity, HP has doubled down on webOS, which they acquired when they purchased a struggling Palm in April 2010.  They recently accounced a 9.7 inch tablet running webOS 3.0, an optimized version of the OS for tablet computers.

The problem with this is that most software developers still don’t have a scalable way to build applications across platforms and now across device families within each platform.  With the release of iOS SDK 3.2 in March 2010 (Just before the release of the original iPad), Apple enabled developers to begin building “Universal Applications” that are optimized to run on all iOS devices.  Google has released its version 3.0 “Honeycomb” SDK for tablets, which when integrated with an API called Fragments, allows applications to scale across a variety of screen sizes.  However, this doesn’t help developers whose applications are targeted at user running earlier versions of Android.  Applications developed on earlier Android platforms are forward compatible, but user experience tends to suffers when these applications are stretched to fit across 7, 9, and 10 inch screens of varying resolutions.  What we’re then left with is a confusing field of hardware, software, programming environments and market share that developers must pick and choose from, and inevitably miss out on significant portions of.  At ROAM, we want to simplify all of this for you and your clients by sorting through device complexity so you don’t have to.  Developing on the ROAM platform will allow you to make sure your applications reach the widest breadth of devices and operating systems while dynamically adapting to the multiple form factors and displays that will flood the market before we know it.  For more information on our tools for developers, please visit http://www.roamdata.com/developers

a) Your waiter at an al fresco table at a cafe in a city you are visiting.

b) A person selling “Guchi” sunglasses on a sidewalk in New York for $5 each

c) Someone selling their art at a local arts and crafts fair

Now imagine you were the bank, issuing loans to these people to finance
their business (think: Jim Carey in “Yes Man”).  Would you give them your
Credit?

The current model of electronic payments is contingent upon two very basic
concepts.  Trust and Risk.  The consumer has to trust that the merchant
won’t steal their information, the merchant has to trust (contractually)
that the card issuer (VISA, MasterCard, or Amex) will pay them the
amount they enter into the credit card machine and the Merchant Account
provider has to weigh the risk of default or fraud against the possible
profits a merchant can bring in when allowing the merchant to accept
credit.  Without all of these being true, the friction of commerce would
be huge and we’d be stuck in a cash-based economy.

It has been said that card transactions are inherently a “trust based
exercise.”  Do you trust the person you’re handing the card to to not
write down the numbers, or that the ATM machine that looks dodgy hasn’t
been tampered with?   Everyone in the stream; the consumer, the
merchant, the merchant account provider, the hardware manufacturer and
the issuing bank and credit card company all have a vested interest in
building this trust in the consumer.  Consumers want to buy things
easier, and plastic, or more specifically electronic payment, is easier
than cash.  The merchant gets potentially more and higher ticket sales.
The electronic payment providers (MSPs, hardware, etc..) all get a
piece of the transaction in one way or another.  As a society, the
faster money can flow, the stronger the economy.

Card issuers have helped money flow by offering credit to individuals at a
rate that is variable based on on the individuals credit rating – the
likelihood they are “good” for the loan.  In addition, the card
companies have set up an infrastructure that allows not only for
authorizaiton (checking that there is enough funds in the account) but
settlement as well (actually moving the money).  Through this system,
they transfer that “trust” factor for the merchant from the consumer to
themselves.  The merchant doesn’t have to trust that the consumer can
pay their credit card bill, they only have to trust that the card
issuing bank has the money.

All of this trust comes at a cost.  We do not live in a utopian society
where we can all trust each other and be happy.  Someone has to take a
risk that there isn’t a “bad apple” that will try and take advantage of
the situation.  Risk = Reward.  Whomever takes that risk should be
compensated based on the amount of risk.    This is the basis for all
insurance deals.  You pay a little every day IN CASE something goes
horribly wrong.  IF something does go wrong, you only have to pay your
deductable.  The insurance company pays the rest.   In electronic
payments, who is paying that role?  What happens if someone’s infomation
does get stolen and misused?   is it the consumer who has to pay, or is
it someone else?  The consumer can trust that even IF their information
is stolen, Visa or MasterCard or American Express will refund their
purchases since they, obviously, were not at that big box department
store in Guadaloupe buying $3,000 worth of electronics.  But is that the
end of it?  Not at all.   Once the card issuer has made the refund to
the consumer, they are looking to recoup that loss from others in the
ecosystem.

Now just say that were to happen.  Who gets burned?  Let’s rate it from 1 to 10.

• Does the consumer?  Most likely they will have to spend a few hours on the
  phone with a representative from their credit card company, assuring
  them that this was not their purchase, and no to dock them OR their
  credit rating.  Score 2.
• Does the merchant?  The retailer in Guadaloupe would have to eat the charge
  back for not checking the card holder’s identification closely enough.
  Score 5.
• The merchant that was traced to the root of the security breach could face
  up to a $100,000 fine, which is big enough to crush most small
  businesses.  If the breach happened at a merchant that has met all
  security protocols given by the issuer (PCI compliance) then the
  merchant can defend themselves against the fines.  I’d say that’s a 10.
• What about the issuer?  Anything that hinders the use of a Visa or
  MasterCard is a burn to them.  One $3,000 loss won’t break the bank, but
  if it was systemic, that is another issue altogether.  Score 3.

Consumers trust well known brand names like Visa and MasterCard, and when a
merchant has a “We accept Visa” sticker or a “MasterCard accepted”
tabletop, the trust and security in that brand rubs off on the merchant.
There is an implication that the card holder can use their card with
impunity without having to worry about fraud, since there is an implicit
assumption that the large company like Visa and MC has done their due
diligence on this merchant.  As a marketer I get it.  Put a picture of a
lock on an e-commerce website and people thin-slice it as more secure.
But that is not always the case.  It’s pretty easy to copy and paste
images these days.

Now let’s go back to the four use cases above.

Suppose, just suppose, that the person in each case is untrustworthy.  That the
waiter is about to leave her job and wants to get back at her employer
so she has her phone with a skimmer app on it in her apron, she swipes your card
when she goes to the register to ring up your dinner check, taking
your card info and then uses it to pay for her ticket to France.  That
the guy selling the fake Gucci sunglasses is actually just a front for a
card skimming ring.  He has an iPhone app that looks like a reputable
company you’ve seen before, but that is really his own app that isn’t
connected to anything, it’s just stealing your credit card info.  Oh, he
plays an artist too on the weekends traveling to craft fairs with
someone else’s art to skim cards there too.  Did that art seem too good
for the price?

It all comes down to trust and risk, and once burned, how likely are you
to go back and trust again how much risk are you willing to take?  For
most consumers, there is enough choice in the marketplace that if you
get burned by one retailer (I’m thinking TJMaxx here) you can almost
always go somewhere else that you still trust and get the same or a
similar product.   For merchants looking to accept electronic payments
it’s different.

Everyone in the industry has the responsibility to make their payments as secure
as possible, to reduce the risk of having that trust compromised.
Mobile Commerce is the next “big thing,” and companies that offer a
mobile card acceptance service that can be relatively easily compromised
are a risk that the industry as a whole has to weigh the benefits
(profits) against.  Are the risks to customer confidence worth the basis
points you get per transaction?  ROAM does not think so.

Great news!  We’ve just confirmed and added support for Verizon & Sprint’s latest BlackBerry, the Curve 3G 9330.  This phone was introduced to replace the aging BlackBerry Curve 8530; while a very popular device, one that lacked a 3G radio chip and thus suffered from slower data speeds.  This refreshed iteration of the BlackBerry Curve also features the latest version of BlackBerry OS 6.  It also stands out as one of the most affordable smart phones on the market, available for just $49.99 with a 2-year contract from Verizon and free from Sprint with a 2-year contract.

The phone is compatible with our #1011 ROAMpay Swipe for BlackBerry today.  As of now, we’re still working on bringing support to the GSM version, the BlackBerry Curve 3G 9300 available from AT&T & T-Mobile.  As always, check back here or visit the ROAM Data Device Center to see what devices we will be supporting next.

And make sure you follow us on Twitter for up to the minute updates on ROAM Data and device support!

As of 2/20/2010, we officially offer ROAMpay Swipe support for 22 Android devices, 5 Apple iOS devices, and 14 BlackBerry devices, for a total of 41 mobile devices.  Here is the breakdown by carrier:

• Verizon: 12
• AT&T: 10
• T-Mobile: 8
• Sprint: 9

note: iPod Touch & iPad are not counted as carrier distributed devices

As you can see, ROAM has made a point of even distribution of supported devices across carriers.  We also aim to support flagship Android & BlackBerry devices across all four major carriers.  To that end, we recently added to our supported device list, the BlackBerry Bold 9780 (T-Mobile) and the HTC EVO Shift 4G (Sprint).  I will now briefly summarize changes in the smart phone landscape since Q3 2010, broken down by OS, along with my thoughts on ROAM’s strategy towards approaching device support.

RIM/BlackBerry

At the time of our launch of the #1011 ROAMpay Swipe, which enabled support for select BlackBerry devices, we boasted support for RIM’s flagship handsets across all four major carriers, in particular the Curve 8500 series devices, the Bold/Tour 9600/9700 series devices, and the Torch 9800.  We are working on supporting the new flagship, the Curve 3G 9300 series.  While there are still plenty of 8500 series Curve devices in the wild, we are beginning to see increasing demands for its 3G successor, and its CDMA counterpart and we are working towards supporting this device in the coming quarter.

RIM also announced its first tablet computer in September 2010, dubbed the BlackBerry Playbook.  It is slated for a Q1, 2011 release in the US.  It runs on a new QNX based operating system called BlackBerry Tablet OS, which is rumored to allow the device to run Android applications.

Apple/iOS

Apple released the iPhone 4 on Verizon on February 11, 2010, Breaking Verizon’s Wireless’ sales record in a mere two hours.  We obtained one on launch day and are hard at work on bringing ROAMpay Swipe compatibility to this in the very near future.

With Apple’s history of an approx 12 month product cycle, it is likely that we will see new iPhone and iPad releases in Q2/Q3, 2011. When more details on these devices surface, you can be sure that ROAM will be ready to bring support to these and any other surprise devices Apple may have up its sleeve.

Google/Android

In January, we released an update to our ROAMpay Application for Android, which added Swipe functionality to 13 new devices.  To date, The ROAMpay Swipe supports 22 Android devices.  Since Q3 2010, close to 40 Android powered smart phones hit the global market and the number becomes much larger once you take into account tablet PCs and other devices (i.e. Barnes & Noble Nook).  But since ROAMpay is currently only available in the U.S., our focus has only been on domestic handset releases on the major four carriers.

Unlike BlackBerry and Apple, which produce the both the hardware and software of its handsets, approaching Swipe support for Android devices is more complex.  While our applications are compatible on most Android devices running OS Version 2.1 or higher (approx 89% of all Android devices run 2.1 or higher), the Android OS runs on a variety of different hardware, all with different form factors and power outputs.  Our ROAMpay Swipe to date been compatible with various Motorola, Samsung, LG, and HTC devices running Android.  We are actively working on supporting some flagship products not yet supported, like the HTC MyTouch 4G on T-Mobile and the Motorola Droid 2 on Verizon.

We’ve also seen a plethora of Android devices get announced at recent consumer electronics conferences like CES and Mobile World Congress.  Many of these new generation handsets are the successors to the devices we currently support, so we are prepared to modify and test our current applications once these devices hit the market.  Here are the most notable devices to be launched before Q3, 2011, broken down by hardware manufacturer:

• Motorola
  • Droid Bionic (Verizon)
  • Atrix 4G (AT&T)
  • Xoom Tablet (Verizon)

• LG
  • Optimus Revolution (Verizon)
  • Optimus 3D Tablet
  • Optimus Black

• Samsung
  • Galaxy S 4G (T-Mobile)
  • Galaxy Infuse 4G (AT&T)
  • SCH-i520 (Verizon) (will likely launch under a different name)
  • Galaxy Tab 10.1

• HTC
  • Incredible S
  • Desire S
  • Wildfire S

Windows Phone 7 (currently unsupported)

The newcomer to the smart phone market has been slow to start, but we are seeing inquiries from customers and resellers about future player and swipe support.  In Q4 2010, the OS only had 2% of the smartphone market share and is currently being sold on T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T’s networks domestically on handsets manufactured by HTC, Samsung, LG, and Dell.

However to be noted, Nokia recently announced an industry-shifting, strategic partnership with Microsoft where Windows Phone 7 will be the primary OS.  Nokia, which has seen its global OS market share slide in recent months mostly due to rapidly growing Android adoption, says it is ready to double down on WP7, meaning the US may see an influx of Phone 7 powered Nokia smart phones beginning this year.  Symbian OS, which was once a global dominant in the smart phone market, is being gradually phased out.

HP/Palm (currently unsupported)

Palm, which was on the verge of collapse earlier last year, was bought by HP which pledged to devote significant resources to building out Palm’s most recent mobile operating system, WebOS.  Until earlier in Q1 2011, we had only seen a handful of WebOS devices, most of them being last generations, but HP recently held an event showcasing the company’s new mobile offerings.

The Palm Pre 3, the Palm Veer, and the HP TouchPad are the company’s first devices showcasing the next generation of WebOS.  The TouchPad, a 10 inch tablet PC, was very impressive to note, and HP has shown they are trying to make a statement in the rapidly growing Tablet market.  Their marketing push has included making it the official device of the 2011 Grammy Awards, giving it more visibility in one night than Palm has seen in the past year.  The press event also made clear that HP plans on moving WebOS to a variety of machines, including more tablets, netbooks, laptops, and printers.  While they have a lot of ground to make up in terms of smart phone OS market share, they shouldn’t yet be dismissed and we could very soon see the landscape becoming a give horse race with the right amount of partnerships with carriers and retail distributors.

Let ROAM worry about Mobile

One of our most important goals with getting new devices on our list is maintaining backwards compatibility.  Our aim is to support our current clients while also giving our clients the flexibility and edge of having compatibility with the latest and greatest phones on the market.  Our team of experts is constantly researching and identifying the latest phones and operating systems give our clients the widest range of hardware options.  ROAM Data worries about mobile so our clients can focus on their core business.