Inside CommBank's Kaching: photos
Summary: The Commonwealth Bank has made a to-do list as long as its proverbial arm for the future of its NFC-enabled, pay-anyone app Kaching!, which includes support for virtual currency, like Facebook Credits, coupons, deals and an eventual partnership with Google for its Wallet product. Take a look inside the first iteration of Kaching! and our chat with CommBank chief marketing officer, Andy Lark.
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Users can also pay bills via BPAY on the new Kaching! app.
Lark said that while the Kaching! app is also being developed from the ground up for Android (rather than an iOS app ported across), the bank has no plans to develop an NFC-capable case for the Android contingent.
He did say, however, that the Commonwealth Bank had met with Google, who indicated a native NFC chip to be used by the bank would be ready within 12 months, at which time Lark hopes to have a partnership on the way for Google's Wallet product.
"We hope [to partner with Google Wallet]. We were up in Silicon Valley last week talking to Google," Lark said, adding that "there's a lot of hype around Google Wallet, but it really does depend heavily on the NFC element in the device. The reality is that they're testing that in the US now in a limited way, and testing in one or two European markets in a very limited way. Where Australia will sit on their test list, who knows?"
"The critical mythology in the market today is that all these Android phones in the market today have NFC chips in them. They actually have 'dumb' chips in them, and Google, based on what we've seen so far, doesn't look like they'll be in the market for at least 12 months with an NFC-enabled phone.
"It's not enough to have the chip in it; you have to have it enabled, and the 'secure element' has to be available to us as an institution so we can turn it on for you," he said.
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