American Express’ Serve Picked Up By Verizon

The mobile payment sector is going to have a huge impact on the consumer world. Various mobile ecommerce payment solutions have announced their entry to the market, without the actual entry part. Google Wallet intends to use NFC chips and receivers for users to pay each other and merchants, by putting their phones within 4 inches of a receiver. Servewas announced some time ago as American Express’ introduction to the market, and Verizon has picked it up.

The mobile phone service provider has said that it plans to introduce Serve to its smartphones and tablets in the coming months. Finally mobile payments are getting introduced so we can actually use them! One problem though, I don’t have an American Express card – do you? Thankfully it doesn’t matter!

In order to take advantage of Serve, which uses your phone number to send payments to you, you need to pre-load money onto your account, with is then managed by American Express. This new mobileecommerce solution payment system sadly makes the user go through two extra steps, something that Google Wallet will not require. Your money is not connected to your existing bank accounts. Instead, the money needs to be transferred to the system, and then withdrawn (if you want some cash or interest).

Verizon plans to make this part of their software they pre-load on phones, more commonly known as “Verizon Bloat-ware.” Mobile payments are going to be a huge player in the future of ecommerce solutions, especially mobile ones, and will hopefully help do away with physical credit/debit cards.

Think of the transition that payments have had in the past years. We started off using cash for pretty much everything. Then checks came along with an MICR (magnetic ink) strip that added security and subtracted cash. After that, credit cards! Those amazing plastic devices with that cool magnetic strip you have to keep magnets away from (weird huh?). Everyone could spend money they didn’t have! Companies are now aiming to take the wallet out of the equation and use the smartphone.

All of these services should be launching by the of the year and it’s going to be a battle of mass proportions to see who wins out. Google, AmEx, Ericsson, and PayPal are only a few of the competitors looking for the biggest market share.

via Zippycart