Brodia and WearLogic to Integrate Secure Smart Card Smart Wallet Technology into Leather Electronic Wallet
Pairing puts Brodia e-wallet on the move with mobile m-commerce platform
Las Vegas – May 16, 2001 – Your wallet will never be the same when WearLogic, the intuitive mobile technology innovator, and The Brodia Group, the leading provider of network-connected commerce and payment authentication technology, join forces to create a secure intelligent wallet that fits in a purse or back pocket. WearLogic’s Smartwear™ Wallet, the industry’s first leather electronic wallet, will be integrated with the Brodia eBusiness Platform’s industry standard digital wallet. The result will be a mobile Brodia e-wallet, enabling secure transactions anywhere, and at anytime. The companies will preview the new e-wallet at CardTech/SecurTech 2001 at WearLogic’s booth #854.
WearLogic’s SmartwearWallet contains a flexible screen, ATM-like soft keys, a smart card reader and an intuitive keyboard along with the usual pockets and compartments found in a traditional leather wallet. Built-in XML browser interface technology, known as WearX™, makes it easy to download information such as addresses, driving directions, and e-mails from the user’s PC or the Internet. The Smartwear Wallet will interact with Brodia’s smart card smart wallet linked through Brodia’s Identity Management System (IDMS), enabling authenticated digital transactions directly from the wallet. The result is a physical wallet that doubles as a personal and financial portal. Cardholders can track personal information, financial account information and make secure purchases in both brick-and-mortar and e-commerce environments.
This alliance between two smart card industry innovators delivers an acquisition and retention tool to banks and card issuers that allows cardholders to authenticate financial transactions directly from a familiar payment accessory – their wallet. The agreement provides for an OEM-level integration of the Brodia eBusiness Platform and smart card smart wallet into WearLogic’s mobile information systems. The companies will also jointly market these integrated services to card issuers, processors, and card companies worldwide.
M-Commerce in a Leather Wallet
With the prediction of two-way infrared communications between electronic organizers and payment terminals by the end of the this year, a secure platform using a smart card as the trusted firewall is necessary to ensure applications and data are secure.
“Consumers make many of their payments for goods and services by pulling cash or cards from the wallet that they carry in their pocket or purse,” said Brodia CEO Ron Martinez. “We created our smart card smart wallet to operate on any networked device - from PCs to mobile phones to TVs – which will help bring the familiar wallet into the age of m-commerce.”
“Wallets already serve as people’s personal finance center today. As consumer use of the Internet for e-commerce grows, the demand for our wallets will come into their own,” said Robert Wesley, WearLogics’ chief operating officer. “With easy connection to the Internet, our wallet becomes a secure personal portal, portable ATM, a point-of-sale terminal, and a secure personal digital assistant all in one.”
Wallet Embeds Smart Card in Daily Life
WearLogic envisions that smart card issuers will issue their cards together with a Smartwear Wallet and that once the card is inserted in the wallet, it will be immediately recognized. The wallet`s screen gives prompts so that its owner can connect it to a PC and download financial account information.
The Smartwear Wallet can read smart cards, store information about its owner, and make Internet payments when it is connected to a computer. WearLogic hopes to add wireless applications so that people will be able to wave the wallet in front of a payment terminal instead of digging out a card. The company expects that the physical wallet will be a center for doing online banking and that banks will be able to deliver advertisements or messages to customers every time they turn on the wallet or make a transaction. The wallet would track loyalty and rewards points, too. By year end, WearLogic plans to become one of the first companies to use Bluetooth wireless technology, which would let the wallets communicate with PCs, point of sale terminals, and cell phones without the use of cables or connectors. Smart cards will become a permanent part of the wallet, and eventually customers will no longer need to remove them from the wallet.
About Brodia
Brodia (www.brodia.com) provides the premier eBusiness platform and core applications to enable personal commerce, payments and identity management on any mobile or other network-connected device. The Brodia eBusiness Platform enables financial institutions, mobile carriers, developers and third parties to build products and extend their services. The company`s services are available through a range of the leading financial institutions whose collective customer base is in excess of 200 million. Based in San Francisco, and with offices in New York, Brodia is backed by a group of investors that includes Bank of Singapore Limited, Capital Z Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Draper Fisher Jurvetson ePlanet Ventures, Itochu Corporation, MasterCard International and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co.
About WearLogic, Inc.
Founded in 1998, WearLogic, Inc. is a privately held company, headquartered near Boston in Wakefield, Massachusetts. The WearLogic vision is to lead the information management evolution by linking independent mobile devices with one platform for the management of personal information that is used everywhere. Using WearLogic’s proprietary Flextekä technology solutions the durability and security of today’s mobile devices can be enhanced by incorporating any or all of the four Flextek solutions. One of the solutions, DeviceXä, is the hardware technology which enables a new level of convenience in personal hardware and software mobile products that you can fold, twist, crush, and adapt to any desired form. Through WearXä, an XML browser interface technology, it is possible to interact with mobile devices in an intuitive way. CardXä technology provides an efficient means to access and interact with virtually any smart card. The fourth technology, CommXä, is a family of solutions that allow mobile devices to communicate with other devices using wired, wireless, and emerging communication technologies such as Bluetooth. The Smartwearä Wallet encapsulates all four of the Flextek solutions. For more information, please visit the company`s website at www.wearlogic.com.
Flextek, DeviceX, WearX, CommX, CardX, and Shopcarte are marks of WearLogic, Inc. All other marks are property of their respective owners.
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Brett R. Cody
Montner & Associates
(203) 226-9290
bcody@montner.com
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