Submitted by Randall Radic as part of our
contributors program
.
At the present juncture, most analysts are bullish on high-tech,
especially the area of mobile payment options, which everyone
acknowledges is the wave of the future. The only question
confronting investors is which wave to catch. There are a lot of
them out there. In fact, one industry analyst contends new ones are
introduced daily by smaller companies and start-ups. Square is
probably the most prominent.
But hold on! NCR (
NCR
), one of the largest manufacturers of payment processing
equipment, recently introduced the first cloud-based point of sale
software platform, called NCR Silver (
www.NCRSilver.com
). NCR Silver enables small and independent retailers to manage
transactions, track sales and inventory, process credit cards and
market to customers on both point of sale touch-screen terminals
and Apple mobile devices, including iPad and iPhone.
NCR Silver's advantage over its competitors is simple: NCR is
able to offer mobile-payment software to current or potential
merchant-clients and an "add-on" to its present equipment and
software offerings. Since NCR Silver is the brainchild of one of
the largest payments equipment providers, it is easy for merchants
to integrate into their present systems.
If a merchant buys a product from an upstart or Square, for
example, integration is not smooth and stress-free. In fact, it
usually requires the merchant to completely transform his entire
system, which means purchasing new equipment and then familiarizing
himself and his staff with it.
NCR Silver allows merchants to accept card payment through a
point of sale terminal or a mobile device. Square does not have
that flexibility, meaning the merchant must have two different
systems, one for regular credit cards and another for mobile
devices.
Wednesday's release of the fifth generation iPhone served to
strengthen NCR Silver's position in the marketplace. Apple did not
embed NFC (near field communications) chips into the iPhone 5.
Instead of snuggling up to NFC technology, Apple has decided to
develop Passbook, a moblile app that pulls together loyalty cards,
tickets, and coupons. Passbook will not allow users to link credit
and debit cards.
NCR Silver's downloadable app fills the NFC vacuum in the iPhone
5, allowing users to link their credit and debit cards, thus making
mobile payments. In fact, at the existing moment, NCR Silver is way
ahead of everyone else. Isis, the mobile payment system being
developed by a joint venture of wireless carriers, including
AT&T Inc., T-Mobile, Vodafone, and Verizon Wireless, has been
delayed for undisclosed reasons. This delay puts NCR Silver in the
cat-bird seat.
The market research company Gartner Inc., predicts mobile
payment transactions will grow to around $600 billion world-wide by
2016, up from $172 billion this year. Capital One Financial,
American Express, and J.P. Morgan Chase have indicated they will
provide mobile payment capability to their card customers as soon
as possible.
NCR Silver is available now.