INSIDE Contactless Launches Initiative to Jumpstart Mobile Payment Market

New Class of MicroPass Solutions Promises to Enable Existing Mobile Phones to
Make Contactless Payments
AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France--(Business Wire)--
INSIDE Contactless, the world leader in advanced open-standard contactless chip
technologies, today announced an initiative to create a new class of mobile
payment solutions that banks, brands, transit agencies and others can deploy
quickly, easily and in a highly targeted way starting in 2010. INSIDE has
already engaged with several innovative technology companies that share its
vision to develop a variety of mobile payment solutions based on INSIDE`s
proven, certified MicroPass platform that will enable existing mobile phones to
support mobile payments, as well as transit, ID and access control applications.
A number of these solutions expected to reach the market as early as this fall.

"We have launched this initiative because we see an opportunity to support our
partners and customers with a new class of MicroPass payment options designed to
enable alternative mobile payment solutions as early as the start of next year,"
said Charles Walton, executive vice president for INSIDE Contactless. "As the
leader in contactless payment solutions, INSIDE has the core chip hardware,
optimized operating system, applications, reference antenna designs, technical
expertise and other tools our partners can use to build a new class of solutions
that can connect to existing mobile phones through various means to turn them
into powerful payment devices."

INSIDE has pioneered the first suite of add-on mobile payment solutions,
contactless sticker products based on INSIDE`s MicroPass platform. Mobile
handset stickers can turn just about any personal item - from a mobile phone to
an employee ID badge - into a payment device. Although not electronically
connected to the phone, these stickers are able to support debit, prepaid debit
and credit card payments, and are convenient plastic card replacements.

Several new mobile payment solutions coming to market from partners through
INSIDE`s initiative will enable mobile phones to integrate with a
MicroPass-based secure element outside the phone, enabling solutions to be
deployed more rapidly in 2010. Using microSD cards, existing BlueTooth channels,
existing data connections, and other methods to communicate with the phone,
these peripheral solutions will open the door to more robust, NFC-like payment,
transit and access control applications in a next phase of deployment. These
solutions will allow a mobile phone user to easily make a payment from among
several virtual credit or debit cards stored within the mobile payment
peripheral device, see the balance remaining on prepaid debit cards or transit
passes, and even collect and redeem coupons and loyalty points.

"INSIDE is in a unique position because of our relationships with bank card
issuers, transit agencies, brands, access control companies and others, as well
as with the technology innovators who are trying to produce new kinds of mobile
payment solutions, and we have proven contactless payment chip platforms that
have been certified by the major card brands," said Walton. "Whether it`s NFC or
a mobile payment peripheral solution, INSIDE can provide compatibility and a
future evolution path because the same chips, the same operating system, the
same performance, the same security and the same interface that works with the
same contactless readers are utilized."

MicroPass products have already been approved by Visa, MasterCard and Discover
Network for use in a number of card products, providing manufacturers with an
advantage as they work towards final product qualification.

The MicroPass family of intelligent hardware platforms are used to power more
certified payment products than any other contactless technology, and have been
designed from the ground up to support multiple contactless applications,
including contactless payment, transit fare collection, access control, retail
loyalty programs and lightweight ID applications. Its low power and high
performance, combined with fast transaction time and outstanding read distance,
enables MicroPass to deliver a superior user experience for a broad range of new
mobile payment solutions.

Technology companies developing mobile payment solutions who would like to
participate in this initiative, as well as banks, retailers, transit agencies,
access control companies and others who are interested in developing new mobile
payment applications, should contact INSIDE Contactless for more information.

About INSIDE Contactless

INSIDE Contactless is the global leader in open-standard contactless payment and
Near Field Communication (NFC) semiconductors and software that power the next
generation of payment, transit, identity and access control applications. The
company`s intelligent, microprocessor-based platforms offer the flexibility to
be embedded in smart cards, mobile phones and other consumer electronic devices,
documents, badges and other items to support a wide range of innovative
contactless applications and bring new levels of convenience to users. INSIDE
has delivered more than 300 million contactless platforms worldwide to customers
and partners that include many of the leading payment card and mobile phone
manufacturers, systems integrators and financial institutions. With a portfolio
of 60 families of patents, including several essential NFC patents, the company
has played a leading role in NFC and contactless innovation. INSIDE is
headquartered in Aix-en-Provence, France, with offices in Shanghai, Singapore,
Warsaw, Seoul and Silicon Valley. For more information, please visit
www.insidecontactless.com.

For INSIDE Contactless
Corman Communications, LLC
Patrick Corman, 650-326-9648
patrick@cormancom.com
www.cormancom.com
or
INSIDE Contactless
Geraldine Sauniere, Marcom Director, +33 (0) 4 42 39 33 01
gsauniere@insidefr.com

Copyright Business Wire 2009