http://www.thecatalystcode.com/theconversation/blog The Catalyst Code Fri, 16 May 2008 14:16:22 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Ignorance could delay contactless-payments adoption according to a heading in Cardline, which quotes some wags who suggest that contactless isn’t going as fast as it might because of “the technology’s unfamiliarity among merchants and consumers.” (CardLine, subscription required).Of course it is hard to tell whether potential customers don’t choose something ... http://www.thecatalystcode.com/theconversation/blog/2008/05/16/has-contactless-sputtered-because-merchants-are-ignorant-or-unpersuaded/ Card rewards are going to disappear and fees are going to return according to a recent research report Disruption in the Payments World. That’s a distinct possibility. Between the interchange fee lawsuits and Congressional pressure for the card associations to get rid of interchange fees it is possible that the ... http://www.thecatalystcode.com/theconversation/blog/2008/05/13/bag-rewards-raise-fees-not-so-quick/ In its latest stick ‘em in the eye approach to the mobile industry Google came out swinging at a recent forum sponsored by the Federal Trade Commission Google Pushes Open Mobile Platform at FTC Event. According to Rich Miner, who’s heading their Android mobile software platform initiative, when someone controls a ... http://www.thecatalystcode.com/theconversation/blog/2008/05/12/googles-level-playing-field-for-mobile/ With the abrupt stop of the mating dance between Microsoft and Yahoo we can talk about other questions about the future of the online ad business. Here are some of mine. For social networking: How much will eyeballs however measured sell for on social networking sites—will they be more ... http://www.thecatalystcode.com/theconversation/blog/2008/05/07/advertising-how-much-money-for-our-eyeballs/ Ok, all of you are probably sick of us writing on mobile. But I thought the recent article in the New York Times Mobile TV Spreading in Europe and to the US was pretty interesting. The Swiss it appears are going crazy watching TV on their little screens—40,000 ... http://www.thecatalystcode.com/theconversation/blog/2008/05/06/mobile-tv/ My post last week Blah, Blah Mobile... Blah, Blah Mobile really prompted a lot of discussion about the topic of mobile payments – and maybe even touched a few raw nerves in the process. I thought I would follow up with a few observations given the discussions that took place ... http://www.thecatalystcode.com/theconversation/blog/2008/05/05/more-on-mobile-payments/ Last week, The Capital Times, Madison Wisconsin’s 90-year old daily newspaper, stopped publishing the print version of its newspaper and announced that it will instead publish all of its news to the web. This move was made after it watched its circulation dwindle by more than half over recent years ... http://www.thecatalystcode.com/theconversation/blog/2008/05/05/newspaper-middlemen-the-first-to-go/ Embattled handset manufacturer Motorola has recently announced its intention to develop a digital movie initiative that would offer full length motion pictures reformatted for their multimedia devices. Paramount Pictures has reportedly signed on as a content partner with others not far behind. Some say that the service could launch in ... http://www.thecatalystcode.com/theconversation/blog/2008/04/28/hollywood-on-your-handset/ How many of you are growing weary of the same old proclamations from analysts on mobile payments? Citing “the need to work together so that everyone can win” Javelin remains bullish on NFC technology and cites contactless as the enabler for e-wallets that contain everything from cards to photos ... http://www.thecatalystcode.com/theconversation/blog/2008/04/28/blah-blah-mobileblah-blah-mobile/ As he said in an interview with American Banker (subscription required), Wachovia's Steve Boehm is taking the sensible man's approach to contactless: wait and see if it takes off and get on the bandwagon when it does. Contactless--like smart cards--is unfortunately a technology in search of a business model to ... http://www.thecatalystcode.com/theconversation/blog/2008/04/25/wachovia-no-contactless/