mint wireless launches pre-emptive strike

Looking to pick up more at this price..

http://www.itwire.com/your-it-news/mobility/62991-mint-wireless-launches-pre-emptive-strike-at-square


S mobile payments company Square is coming to Australia. Local player Mint Wireless says it has better technology.

Last month Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull tweeted that he had met with US mobile payments company Square and discussed their imminent move into Australia.

There has still been no formal announcement, but thanks to Turnbull the cat is out of the bag. Square was founded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, but relies on the use of magnetic stripe credit cards rather than those incorporating encrypted chips, which are now in almost universal use in Australia and Europe.

Australian mobile payments developer Mint Wireless has launched a public relations offensive ahead of Square’s entry into the Australian market. It has released a flurry of ASX announcements and press releases, and has its PR people hawking interviews with the CEO around the IT and financial press.

Mint Wireless has also announced a developers’ kit for its nattily named Mintegrate, a “simple yet powerful platform to support developers who are looking to integrate mobile payments into mobile applications.”

Mint Wireless was established in 2006 by brothers Alex and Andrew Teoh. It was the first Australian company to pioneer and launch a Chip and PIN mobile payment solution that is modular, scalable and operates on a PCI-compliant bank grade platform. It enables EMV-based chip and sign transactions through iOS and Android smartphones.

Mint uses a small dongle which plugs into the phone’s AV jack and allows the card to be swiped. An app in the phone sends the details to Mint’s backend systems, which then interface to banks’ payment systems.

Mint is already in use with a number of organisations, including EasyJet in Europe, which uses it for excess baggage payments, and Cadbury Schweppes in Australia, which uses it for payment to its delivery drivers. Mint has also signed five year contract with accounting software company MYOB to power its planned expansion into mobile payments.

Teoh believes the technology is now ready for widespread acceptance. “Mobile payment technology is now mature, and there is a massive potential market,” he told CommsWire.

”We have developed the technology, now we want to make it available to developers so they can develop applications easily.

“Our Mintegrate platform gives developers everything they need to integrate mobile card payments into their apps: software developer kits (SDKs) and application programming interfaces (APIs) for iOS, Android and Windows, a brandable portal, compatible hardware, and reporting tools.”

Mint is also offering a white label service to merchants, with revenues from license, usage and transaction fees. It will also make money from selling its hardware and professional services.

“Our payment technology is ready to scale with the flexibility to integrate and empower organisations who want to get into mobile payments quickly and without building from scratch.”

”Mintegrate targets developers building mobile applications for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). SMEs are increasingly shifting towards mPOS services to collect payments using tablets and smartphones.,” says Teoh.

“There are over two million SMEs representing almost 96% of Australian businesses. With the launch of Mintegrate, Mint Wireless aims to grow its mPOS market share through SMEs.

“Mintegrate was developed to support the growing demand for mobile payment solutions and the need to support developers who want to easily integrate this within applications. It offers Australia’s first simple yet powerful mobile payments integration for developers.

“Through Mintegrate, we have simplified the pricing structure for any mobile or retail business that accepts card payments. In addition, we have provided a recurring revenue stream to developers who are looking to integrate our solution in their client’s mobile applications.”

One of Mintegrate’s pioneer adopters, ViViPOS, has developed Mobile ViViPOS, a POS system for the hospitality sector. Teoh says that In the near future, Mintegrate will be incorporated into Mobile ViViPOS’ functionality to enable customers to make card payments at the dining table.

Mint Wireless estimates the estimated value of mPOS transactions in Australia will reach US$7 billion in 2014 with the potential to grow to US$20 billion in 2016.