Gemalto has provided a secure element based applet for smart wearables launched by China UnionPay Co. (CUP), one of the world's major payment associations with total transactions reaching USD 1.9 trillion in the first quarter of 2015.
Smart wearable devices are gaining popularity globally, with total shipments expected to surpass 200 million in 2019. CUP had launched smart wearables with embedded secure elements based payment applications last year.
The payment applet runs on the secure element, to provide online and offline payment capabilities on wearables. This will eliminate the need for different card vendors to develop their own versions, simplifying deployment of payment applications on a wide range of secure elements and vastly improving time to market, for a new era of innovative wearables.
"Intelligent NFC-based wearable devices are set to disrupt our lives much beyond contactless payments - from user access and authentication to smart homes and cities, the possibilities are simply endless," said Suzanne Tong-Li, President for Greater China and Korea at Gemalto. "With extensive experience in NFC ecosystem and end-to-end security, we support CUP to not only simplify and speed up this launch for maximum outreach, but also provide consulting for next-generation solutions."