The Luciano Group

It’s been called a “Surcharge,” “Swipe Fee,” “Credit Card Fee” “Interchange,” or a “Checkout fee.”  Until today, retailers were not allowed to pass these fees on to their customers.  If you heard about it in the news, you may have the impression that you will have to pay 4% more for everything starting today.  That [...]

International voice traffic for the first three quarters of 2012 was 8% greater than the same period in 2011 according to Global Voice Tracker, our independent industry tracking service. This is double the 4% annual growth rate the industry experienced last year. Terminating minute volumes showed growth to nearly all regions of the world, with [...]

Square launched at Starbucks today, and it is an interesting step forward in the world of mobile commerce – not just for Starbucks, but for other Square retailers. For all of the good and not-so-good features of Square’s new app, remember that it is Square’s “Model T Ford.”  They are just getting started in the [...]

[Update October 23, 2012: Isis launched yesterday; the rumor was true.] A rumor that has been circulating for several days appears to have been confirmed: the Isis mobile wallet will launch in its two test cities (Austin and Salt Lake City) on Monday October 22, 2012.  The rumor received some credibility when the Wall Street [...]

Based on Apple’s press conference on September 12, their strategy can be described as: change customer behavior now, encourage an upgrade later. The Apple wallet going to be called “Passbook.” It works without an NFC chip, relying instead on geolocation to determine if an iPhone user is in the proximity of a compatible terminal. Geolocation [...]

Twenty-five years ago, telecommunications was facing their biggest threat since deregulation, and most executives did not take the threat seriously.

Imagine you’re trying to grow your business, develop a new business or improve your operations, supply chains and profits.  You may think of reaching out and getting some helpful ideas from a few customers, suppliers, and employees.  But how can you exponentially improve the probability, timeframe and scale of success?  Why not ask everybody, everywhere, [...]

International Voice Minutes Growth Rates by Terminating Countries 2011 versus 2010 While the annual growth rate of international voice minutes averaged 4% in 2011, the view at a country level shows a wide spectrum of change from robust growth to steep decline. Over 40% of the countries of the world experienced negative minute growth rates [...]

Retailers often ask, “What new POS equipment should I buy?” My answer has been the same for almost 4 years: “Nothing, yet.” My logic is this: The upcoming liability shift occurs in October 2015 for merchants that have not deployed EMV. So, any retailer that wants to accept Visa, MasterCard and/or Discover after October 2015 [...]

When VeriFone speaks, they often reveal the next advances in Mobile Commerce. They spoke clearly at the GSMA conference earlier this  month regarding both Near Field Communications (NFC) and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). In October of 2010 when VeriFone  announced that for the first time their systems could circumvent the established payments industry, it received [...]

Here is a free resource from The Luciano Group.   Have you ever wondered which mobile commerce events were happening this month?  Ever get frustrated trying to weed out the mobile commerce events from the events lists of other industries like payments, telecommunications, and banking? The resource you need is here: www.lucianogp.com/mc-events Google+

The Mobile Payments industry is starting over. When the Google Wallet launched on September 20, 2011, the first test of a remarkable new financial ecosystem began. But despite the apparent success of traditional mobile payments products like M-PESA in Kenya and South Africa, Google and rival Isis have decided to rewrite the business model – [...]

Update to previous post: Steve Jobs passed away Wednesday October 5, 2011.  Farewell, and thank you. Here is the original post from August 24: Steve Jobs, legendary of Apple Incorporated, resigned today as CEO. The Board of Directors of Apple named him chairman, then named Tim Cook as the new CEO according to an article [...]

A detailed  forecast and quantitative analysis of the emerging Mobile Commerce industry was presented and discussed at the Pre Paid Press Expo in the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas, and the results were remarkable. Mobile payments and mobile commerce have become different products, applicable to different markets.  One of the key differences is the use [...]

Yesterday, Andrew Johnson  of American Banker magazine (and PaymentSource) interviewed ISIS head of marketing Jaymee Johnson (no relation).   In the article published today, Johnson said:“The handset pipeline around NFC is basically just about to explode,” Jaymee Johnson, ISIS head of marketing, said in a June 22 interview.“That will change pretty dramatically … by the early part [...]

Columnist Alistair Fairweather recently published an article detailing 4 different Mobile Payments Models. With one caveat, the analysis is one of the best-written and most succinct written on the topic to date; a must read for anyone who wants to take a crash course in Mobile Payments.Mr. Fairweather clearly indicated that his list was not [...]

Next  Sunday, an insightful report on the Mobile Wallets by Nora Young will be broadcast on CBC Radio’s “Spark” program in advance of the Mobile Money Forum in Montreal on June 21, 2011.  The podcast of this report was posted this morning.In her report, Nora uses a variety of different interviews and prior reports to present to [...]

Yesterday, the Google Wallet was announced.  Given that security has always been the number one concern of consumers, the most important question on people’s mind is, “will it be more secure?” The short answer is: Yes. Here’s why:   a Smartphone can be secured on the network of your bank, or the network of your credit card [...]

Mobile commerce in the United States will have three Mobile commerce products,  each with similar features, similar benefits, similar functions.  However, all three have different sets of partners,  operate on at least two different types of networks, and will certainly have three different delivery systems.   It’s like a triangular boxing ring with the  boxer in [...]

VeriFone has crystallized its long-term position in a pivotal announcement today about a new product determined to put the VeriFone POS devices at the coveted center of payments, loyalty, and mobile commerce industries.  As reported by American Banker this morning, VeriFone’s new service is called, “PAYMEDIA Solutions” and it appears to have the feature-rich experience [...]