Research In Motion, maker of BlackBerry smartphones, is participating in a mobile-payment trial with contactless MasterCard PayPass stickers and a tie-in to its e-mail service.
The trial is not so important for the combined 200 stickers the Bank of Montreal and MasterCard Canada will hand out to some of their employees and those of RIM to stick onto the back of their BlackBerry phones. But it does indicate a growing interest on the part of the Canada-based smartphone maker in mobile commerce, including contactless payment and other applications. NFC Times has learned RIM has been evaluating NFC chips for possible inclusion in one or more of its BlackBerry models.
The trial, planned to last four months, involves passive contactless stickers, which cannot communicate directly with the phones they are attached to. They are similar to contactless cards, although they have a shorter range and incorporate shielding to help prevent metal in handsets or other devices they are attached to from distorting radio waves carrying transaction data between the stickers and readers.
