Discover Bets on NFC-Enabled iPhone Attachment
Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) is planning to test an NFC-enabled iPhone attachment this month with 400 to 500 employees of Discover near Chicago and Salt Lake City, Utah. [1] This NFC, or Near-Field Communication, attachment will allow users to make credit card payments with their iPhones. The attachment, iCarte, is manufactured by Canada-based Wireless Dynamics. The attachment, which will be compatible with both the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, will enable users to tap for payment wherever Zip is accepted. At present there are about 120,000 locations in the United States where it can be used.
We have a price estimate of $23 for Discover’s stock, about in line with the current market price
See our full analysis of Discover Financial Services here
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Discover is playing catch-up with competitors Visa (NYSE:V) and MasterCard (NYSE:MA) who are far ahead in the mobile payment market. Visa already has a mobile payment program, Visa payWave, that is active at approximately 300,000 locations worldwide. MasterCard also has its mobile payments solution known as PayPass and both of them are pushing for the adoption of NFC infrastructure by merchants and banks. [2]
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Notes:- Discover to Launch Employee Pilot with NFC-enabled iPhone Attachment, NFC Times, Nov 3, 2011 [↩]
- Visa responds to Google Wallet with NFC mobile payment plan of its own, ZDNet [↩]