It may seem counter-intuitive, but MasterCard and Visa are in the midst of a technology war that may some day eliminate plastic credit cards.

At the recent Mobile World Congress, MasterCard introduced a mobile payments system called MasterPass, while Visa announced mobile payment partnerships with Samsung and Roam, a maker of point-of-sale systems. Both MasterCard and Visa, as well as others including Square, PayPal and Affirm, newly launched by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, are going after the same golden ring: the emerging mobile payments market.

MasterCard's MasterPass is a good example of where mobile payments technology is headed. According to Ed McLaughlin, chief emerging payments officer for MasterCard, "MasterPass brings together all of the ways we pay for things, from traditional plastic cards to digital wallets, and gives consumers the ability to make a payment from wherever they are and with one simple experience." MasterPass will offer checkout services that support anything from tags, mobile devices and QR codes used at point-of-sale to a simplified checkout process for online retailers. It will also provide "digital wallets" that banks, merchants and partners can adapt for their own use, featuring an open system that even MasterCard competitors can use. Continue reading...

Groupon sacks founder Andrew Mason as CEO.

Gap reports strong sales on increased marketing spending.

Barnes & Noble falls behind in tablet wars.

Ahold plans to roll out more pickup points for Peapod.

Annie's looks to "spread good."

Apple flip-flopped on rule about officers' stock holdings.

Best Buy and founder end talks on ownership deal.

Boeing pares workforce for grounded Dreamliner.

Diageo prepares to buy majority stake in United Spirits.

Disney finds CEO Robert Iger under fire over power and pay.

Domino's Pizza plans to increase national ad spending. Continue reading...

We may live in an increasingly virtual world, but often it's what happens at live tech trade shows that sets the tone for what is to come. Such was the case with the flurry of major product announcements at January's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. 

This week's Mobile World Congress (MWC13) in Barcelona, Spain has been just as interesting, albeit for different reasons. One couldn't help but notice, for example, Samsung everywhere and Apple nowhere. Coming off its recent glitzy Super Bowl campaign with Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen and Oscars ad campaign starring Tim Burton, Samsung had a dominant presence at MWC13, debuting the Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet as a competitor to the iPad Mini, touting its Android-powered Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II smartphones and proclaiming that it would double tablet sales from a year ago.

Samsung also aligned itself with the show introduction of Intel's Tizen, a new mobile operating system expected to challenge Google's Android. This could potentially put Samsung, which will launch Tizen-based phones this summer, on a collision course with Google, since Samsung currently makes more Android-based devices than any other manufacturer.

Of course, collision courses are nothing new for Samsung, the Korean behemoth that leads the world in cellphones.Continue reading...

NASCAR brand refresh thwarted by P.R. crisis and YouTube takedowns after Saturday's fan-injuring accident during Nationwide race, while Danica Patrick is poised to make history as first female driver in pole position at Daytona 500. Dish Network, meanwhile, released "Memoriam" Daytona 500 campaign yesterday for its Hopper ad-skipping feature, a campaign that Fox has refused to run and Dish is trying to circumvent.

Microsoft joins list of hacked brands as Internet Explorer 11 rumored and Toyota Racing creates trackside app for Microsoft Windows 8.

Huawei unveils "Make it Possible" global branding campaign for Ascend P2 at Mobile World Congress, where Orange unveils own-brand 4G smartphone.

Coca-Cola forms major co-branding partnership in the Middle East.

Donald Trump tells the Financial Times his brand is worth $8 billion.

Dunkin' Donuts tops Brand Keys loyalty index for seventh straight year.Continue reading...

Across the globe, people everywhere are pulling out their cell phones and tablets and e-readers—in buses and trains, in hallways and doorways, on beaches and ski lifts, in bedrooms and in bathrooms. Everywhere, the world is turning to look at mobile devices. Those devices may be getting all the attention out in the world, but the mobile world is much deeper than that, of course, and will have many ramifications for how the world lives.

The mobile world will be taking a close look at itself when the annual Mobile World Congress opens in Barcelona on Feb. 25th. To kick things off, the mobile world’s major association, the GSMA, will showcase how it expects mobile will change in the future by building a “Connected City” that expands on last year's connected house exhibit by featuring everything from a town hall, department store, and apartment to an electrical store, hotel, cafe and lounge, and a car showroom, among other things. With each location, different brands and innovations will be featured.

At MWC's fully connected city street, AT&T will showcase how people can manage their energy consumption and home security. Deutsche Telekom and IBM will show off how their using mobile help create better public transportation as well as  energy, security and water management. Aston Martin will show off a bike that features embedded sensors that communicate with an on-board computer to help athletes get a slew of data on how they are performing.Continue reading...

Sprint today released a video touting its corporate citizenship mission that was only seen by a select few before today. The description:

"We shared this video when Sprint CEO Dan Hesse spoke at the 2012 Mobile World Congress. It illustrates the tremendous power that comes when people are connected. At Sprint, we take our responsibilities seriously and are proud to drive innovation in the wireless industry, lead the way toward more sustainable business practices and advocate for customer choice. We encourage you to learn more at http://sprint.com/responsibility"

Close to 50 years ago, the British musical scene invaded America. Now an American music icon is seeing what kind of cultural damage it can do across the pond.

In an effort to maintain its coolness with teen consumers, MTV has launched a new mobile app called MTV Under The Thumb that “allows users to watch MTV on-demand content simultaneously with friends and chat about it in the app at the same time,” according to Econsultancy.com.

As unveiled at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the co-viewing app launches this month in seven European countries  for Android and iPhone users. Users can also use their smartphones as a remote control and watch the content in a Web browser on a computer, the site notes, as well as share their favorite shows via Facebook.Continue reading...

Isis may be the ancient Egyptian goddess of nature and magic, but she would surely have her lid flipped if she were given a digital wallet that only needs to be tapped in order to pay for something.

Such is the power of Isis, the name of the mobile commerce joint venture launched by a trio of U.S. mobile operators — AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA, and Verizon Wireless — to bring financial services brands' credit, prepaid, and banking customers to mobile. The venture this week signed Chase, Capital One and Barclaycard US, expanding on charter credit card members Visa, MasterCard, and American Express.

It's a "testament to the vision and commitment of Chase, Capital One and Barclaycard to make mobile commerce a real and positive experience for their customers," stated Michael Abbott, CEO of Isis. "Mobile commerce is more than a new way to pay; it's about extending the relationships consumers enjoy with their banks and merchants into a powerful and convenient new form factor."

Sprint, the fourth major player in the U.S. mobile-phone industry, has instead partnered with Google on its Google Wallet, which PC Mag notes has some kinks to work out. PayPal is also promoting its digital wallet to retailers and other businesses.Continue reading...