Motorola Launches Virtual Credit Card for Mobile Commerce Powered by Trintech; Motorola Teams With Trintech to Deliver Mobile Virtual Credit Card - Company Business and Marketing

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, Feb 7, 2000

Trintech announcedthat Motorola, Inc. Wednesday made it easier to shop on the move by unveiling the industry's first secure virtual credit card solution for making online purchases from mobile phones. Motorola has combined virtual credit card technology from Trintech for secure and convenient online purchasing, with their wireless devices to launch the solution at the GSM World Congress 2000 in Cannes.

The innovation is the first in an ongoing collaboration between Motorola and Trintech to create solutions that enable wireless devices with virtual credit cards. Motorola plans to demonstrate a wireless credit card purchase over a mobile phone at the GSM World Congress 2000 in Cannes.

When shopping on the Internet, the user merely has to invoke their virtual credit card by using the keypad on their phone or by using voice activated commands. In a few simple steps, the payment forms at online merchant sites are automatically filled in and the transaction completed.

By tying Motorola's powerful voice activation technology with the Trintech solution, the user simply has to issue voice commands such as 'buy' or 'pay' to complete the transaction. To make gift giving easier, the virtual credit card can also store the shipping addresses of friends and family. Mobile receipts, in the form of text messages, are being considered as a feature in future versions of the solution.

"Mobile commerce blends our wireless telephones and the Internet to take e-commerce to a new level," said Laurence John, Director Mobile e-Commerce for Motorola's Personal Networks Group. "We believe that, by combining voice activation and WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) with e-commerce, we are marrying the very best elements of telephony and the Internet. Any ground-breaking initiative requires a best-of-breed approach and Trintech, as a leading force in secure payment for e-commerce, was our natural choice for such an exciting venture. Trintech shared our vision and had the essential technology that offered the power and flexibility necessary for mobile commerce."

"Mobile commerce is clearly the next wave of e-commerce with 1 billion cell phones predicted by 2004," said John McGuire, co-founder and CEO of Trintech. "The key element in migrating wireless customers to m-commerce is secure payment. Our NetIssuer technology, which powers virtual credit cards, was developed from the outset with the requirements of mobile commerce in mind and Motorola is clearly the leader in the wireless industry. We are delighted to have forged such a strong relationship with Motorola to develop key solutions that is designed to ensure fast and secure payment for wireless devices."

"As one of the world's leading payment brands, MasterCard is pleased to see virtual credit card usage extending to new channels such as mobile commerce," said Art Kranzley, senior vice president, Electronic Commerce and Emerging Technology, MasterCard International. "MasterCard is committed to continuing to drive the convenience of payments through the use of secure wallets, as demonstrated through our recent strategic alliance with Trintech to bring server-based payment software to our member financial institutions."

FMI: http://www.motorola.com.

Founded in 1987, Trintech Group PLC is a leading provider of secure electronic payment solutions for card-based transactions in the physical world and over the Internet. The company offers a complete range of payment software products for credit, debit, commercial and procurement card applications, as well as being a world leader in the deployment of payment solutions for Internet commerce that are fully SSL and SET compliant. Trintech's range of scalable open systems architecture solutions for UNIX and Windows NT platforms covers consumer, merchant and financial institution requirements for physical payments and the emerging world of electronic commerce. Trintech can be reached on the Web at http://www.trintech.com.