“On its surface Nokia Money sounds very similar to PayPal, but the service is expected to offer deeper money management abilities from a cell phone…..the Obopay service received a “very good” rating from CNET, which praised its “operability with most phones and overall ease of use.”
Another article also noted the important role mobile money can play in financial education: “Access to banking tools such as Nokia Money are incredibly important for low income individuals who, in the absence of banks, rely on check cashing and bill paying locations, whose fees eat into their ability to save money.” One report from January 2008 indicated that if the average non banking customer stopped paying to cash checks, he could save $360,000 over his lifetime in pre-tax money.
In addition to the fee-saving benefit, “the access to banking tools is a fundamental step in getting one’s personal finances in order and moving out of a paycheck to paycheck cycle.” Since mobile money is a growing global trend, it may become a positive factor in economic development in emerging economies.
August 28th, 2009
Today Nokia announced its entry into mobile banking with Obopay. In March of this year, the world leader in mobile communications invested in the mobile payments provider, now Nokia is taking the relationship one step further with its entry into banking.
August 26th, 2009
J. Gold Associates says that in order to compete against RIM, Microsoft and Nokia need the deal that integrates Office into Nokia’s Symbian smartphones. The two companies will collaborate on design, development, and marketing.
August 14th, 2009
“California-based Obopay…operates in India and the United States and is looking to move into other markets. Obopay made news most recently with a $35 million investment from Nokia…Obopay services can be tied into a bank or credit card account or prepaid card. It’s carving out a niche not currently served by credit or debit cards with people-to-people transfers such as a parent sending money to a child at college or to a relative during an emergency…And many small merchants don’t accept credit cards, so it becomes an easy way to pay for haircuts, babysitting and other smaller purchases, according to David Schwartz, senior director of product management and marketing.”
You can read the full article here on ITBusinessEdge.
July 16th, 2009
Exclusive interview with Philippe Lerouge of le paiement mobile with Carol Realini, CEO of Obopay:
PL: Carol, I’m very glad to meet you here in Paris and thank you for the time you are spending to answer the questions for the French speaking community. Due to several fund raising and more recently with the Nokia deal, Obopay is starting to be very well known in the industry. How are you capitalizing on this? Is the market mature enough for that?
Read the whole interview here.
July 14th, 2009
By Dusan Belic on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at 9:43 AM PSTIn Barcelona 2009 Summer
Yesterday I posted an interview with Carol Realini from Obopay. Now she’s on stage discussing mobile payments industry players and how they are in a unique position to benefit from a global approach to industry developments. She talked about financial services, wireless and service providers and how they all need to work together to build a sustainable ecosystem that will propel the industry at a global level.
The recap from her speech:
- First she introducing Obopay, mentioning their deal with MasterCard, and investment from Nokia (NYSE: NOK).
- According to Carol, the success will require three things: a holistic approach, strategic partners, and new payment flows.
- Obopay wants to serve all market segments – unbanked, under-banked and banked users in all markets. She mentioned an U.S. example where according to some research there are 30 million families that are considered ubanked or under-banked — i.e. underserved and over-charged.
- Obopay’s philosophy is “Value is in the network.”
- Then she discussed how different user groups require different services: banked want flexible access, under-banked need full access, and un-banked pre-paid money services.
- Because they want to work with all kinds of users, Obopay’s platform is designed to work in various regulatory environments: highly regulated (restricted) such as India, regulated such as U.S. and the EU, as well as innovative markets like Kenya, where telcos are allowed to perform some business banks usually do.
- In that sense, Obopay works with different stakeholders – carriers, banks, merchants, associations, and consumers to reach its goal of offering a cross-carrier and cross-bank service.
- However, when they enter a new market they pick a key/anchor bank and carrier. In the U.S. that was Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Wireless and Citibank. Now they’re also co-operating with AT&T (NYSE: T).
- Finally, she mentioned Obopay’s plans to support all mobile platforms and even extend to social networks.
And that’s all I caught from Carol this time. I’ll be leaving Fira shortly…
Related News from IntoMobile
June 24th, 2009
According to a recent poll taken by Nokia, only 3% of people recycle their mobile phones even though most have several old devices lying around in drawers and cabinets that they no longer want! The survey also found that three out of every four people didn’t even know it was possible to recycle phones at all. This may not sound like that big of a deal, but given the fact that over 3 billion people have Nokia cell phones alone, and given the fact that the average customer has owned 5 different mobile devices, the number of unused, un-recycled cell phones is staggering. Markus Terho, Director of Environmental Affairs at Nokia, comments further in a Cellular News article:
“It is clear from this survey that when mobile devices finally reach the end of their lives that very few of them are recycled. Many people are simply unaware that these old and unused mobiles lying around in drawers can be recycled or how to do this. Nokia is working hard to make it easier, providing more information and expanding our global take-back programs. If each of the three billion people globally owning mobiles brought back just one unused device we could save 240,000 tons of raw materials and reduce greenhouse gasses to the same effect as taking 4 million cars off the road. By working together, small individual actions could add up to make a big difference.”
I never realized that phones could be recycled, or the impact that such an easy action could potentially have. Nokia is doing a great service in building awareness, and I really do hope that this information reaches people. All it takes is a trip to the nearest mobile store to play a part in preserving the future.
Technorati Tags: nokia, nokia survey, recycle, recycle phones, greenhouse gasses, raw materials, mobile devices, mobile store
July 8th, 2008
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