CTIA - USA Technologies powers m-payments at vending machines
THE CTIA Wireless 2012 show had plenty of big mobile payment news from the major players in the space, but dig down beneath that hype and there were some good stories from the not-so-big players as well.
One such company was USA Technologies. Nestled within the Verizon booth, the Malvern, Pa., company demonstrated its "wireless machine-to-machine solutions for small-ticket self-serve retail markets," including its ePort connect product, "a wireless, cashless and contactless telemetry and M2M solution."
In non-techno-marketing speak, that means USAT showed of a cool set of products aimed at bringing mobile payments to vending machines, and showed how micro-transactions are among the best use cases for mobile payments.
The company's technology was included on Susie's Lemonade-branded vending machines inside the Verizon booth, tying into Verizon Wireless's popular national commercials featuring Susie and her lemonade stand. Along with buying an item from the vending machine, USAT's technology would also deliver a coupon in real time to the purchaser's mobile phone and send an alert when it was running low on inventory.
"USAT's presence at the annual CTIA Wireless show — a first for the company — reflects how our cashless and contactless solutions are gaining recognition in the wireless, mobile and M2M markets," said Maeve McKenna Duska, USAT VP of marketing, in a statement.
For more stories on this subject, visit the NFC/Contactless research center.