BlackBerry, Embedded Payments, Delegated Authentication Top This Week’s News

In this week’s news, rumors have been swirling that a new BlackBerry-branded device will be 5G compatible, and new insights on embedded payments and delegated authentication have emerged. The Weekender is here to catch you up.

News

BlackBerry Attempts A Comeback With 5G

Since last year, we’ve been teased with rumors of a new BlackBerry-branded device that would be 5G-compatible and come with a very impressive camera. That phone is set to be made by a firm named OnwardMobility.

Epic Games, Apple Reveal Arguments Ahead Of Antitrust Trial

Apple and Epic Games detailed their arguments in a dispute regarding Apple’s control of the App Store in separate legal filings ahead of an antitrust trial scheduled for May.

Five Banks To Test FedNow Real-Time Payments System

Five regional banks and three credit unions (CUs) will reportedly pilot The Federal Reserve’s FedNow program.

35 CEOs On Payments As The Connected Economy’s Power Source

PYMNTS asked 35 executives about how the pandemic has reshaped their thinking about payments. Their responses are in our new eBook The Connected Economy’s Power Source, CEO edition.

Boston Fed’s Cunha On Building A Payments Network For The ‘Next 100 Years’

Jim Cunha, the Boston Fed’s senior vice president of secure payments and FinTech, talked with PYMNTS about the advantages, disadvantages and unanswered questions about the potentiality of digital fiat to streamline payments and remedy what he refers to as the “broken identity” system in the U.S.

Trackers And Reports

New Report: Trading Places: Tech Firms Need To Move AR From Back Office To Front Office

Three-quarters of technology companies consider their payment operations to just be “somewhat effective” at best. PYMNTS outlines a path forward for technology companies on what they need to bring the same kind of single-click efficiency people and companies associate with their products to their own accounting operations.

Amora Coffee Integrates Embedded Payments To Fuel Customer Loyalty

Firms in some sectors caught on to the embedded payments trend longer before others, with Amazon providing one-click purchasing to customers for many years. People are starting to anticipate these types of streamlined shopping experiences everywhere.

Merchants have to focus closely on this trend to capture shoppers’ attention, particularly as consumers become increasingly less forgiving of payment pain points, Amora Coffee Founder and CEO Jim Fosina explained. PYMNTS explores how embedded payments can help merchants bolster customer conversion.

Report: Delegated Authentication Puts Merchants In The SCA Driver’s Seat

The European Union’s Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) mandate — which makes clients go through multi-factor authentication (MFA) for most purchases — might have been passed with the intention of preventing fraud, yet a number of small companies are discovering that it also raises customer friction.

PYMNTS explores how retailers can get greater control over their payments security via delegated authentication and thus offer smoother experiences for their clients.

Fun, Cool And Otherwise Interesting

Grocery Supplier Launches eCommerce App For Shopify

Supplier GreenDropShip is rolling out an online shopping app for Shopify that lets merchants add natural and organic grocery products to their eCommerce stores.

Speed Bumps May Be In The Mix For SPACs, Traditional IPOs

The special purpose acquisition company (SPAC)/initial public offering (IPO) space has been nothing if not high-flying, with numerous listings just this year to date. However, amid the flood of filings, there may be some speed bumps.

BigTech, OEMs Rev Up Connected Cars’ Future

Fiat and Google are joining forces to take on connected cars. A variation on the popular 500 line of Fiats, the new Hey Google edition comes prepared for the rider who wishes their trip to be completely connected and wired up.

Fixing The ‘Broken Economics’ Of Grocery Delivery

Even though consumers now look for the convenience of delivery, many of them are used to the prices of brick-and-mortar supermarkets. eCommerce grocers are challenged to keep prices low while paying for the workers, the vehicles and the physical buildings necessary to satisfy eCommerce demand.

Pandemic Brings Home Healthcare Back Into Vogue

The pandemic might be just enough to get the fires of home healthcare space burning strong once and for all. As recently reported, home-health provider DispatchHealth recently landed $200 million in Series D funding and is now opening in a new market each three to four weeks.