The mobile payments market is still evolving as fledging companies continue to introduce products to consumers and merchants. The latest entry, Spindle Inc., is set to launch in the first quarter a mobile application that supports person-to-person, person-to-business and even business-to-person payments.
The company was founded in 2010. Bill Clark, president of Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Spindle, would have preferred that the company go public sooner, but he says the appropriate procedures necessary, such as regulatory approval, are just now coming together.
Spindle's timing, however, is impeccable.
Alternative-payments providers are in a better position than are traditional payment card networks to cause the marketplace disruption needed to make mobile payments more mainstream, according to a recent report from Aite Group.
Spindle joins the likes of Dwolla Inc. and PayPal Inc. in bypassing near-field communication technology for mobile payments. Alternative-payments providers have far more flexibility to pursue a wide variety of products to test, Rick Oglesby, Aite senior analyst, wrote in the report.
Spindle's RhinoPay product will be similar to P2P products from PayPal, Clark says. One of the main differences, however, is that Spindle is seeking to stay behind the scenes and let community banks brand the product.
"[Smaller banks] have a need for these type of services," Clark says.
RhinoPay still is in a quality-assurance phase, so Clark could not release too many details. But Spindle is working to connect its e-commerce merchants to consumers through the app to better enable payments for goods and services.
Spindle used text-based mobile payments when it started, Clark says. The company was forced to adapt as the market quickly changed, he adds.
Clark believes this year in mobile payments will be a lot like 2011 as the market continues to evolve.
"We haven't solved all the problems in the market," he says.
