New Year, New Tracker! PYMNTS.com, the premier source of news and commentary on innovation in payments, and ROAM, a pioneer in the mobile POS space, today published the first mobile point of sale tracker of the year. January 2013’s report added five new players to the MPOS Pyramid. The new merchant facing players are Citibank India, Handpoint, Rêv COIN, Pay@Mobile and KWI Cloud 9.

Several players from prior months have also been updated. These include the following 8 merchant facing players: iZettle, mPowa, MRL Posnet, Mswipe, NCR Silver, Payleven, Shopkeep and VeriFone GlobalBay and 3 powered by suppliers, Ezetap, ROAM and VeriFone GlobalBay.

Key insights from January’s report include:

• MPOS players go fishing where the (more stable) fish are: The tens of millions of “non-employer” individuals (aka small businesses) worldwide remain an attractive target for everyone – the low hanging fruit that most players target since they represent the largest proportion of non-card accepting merchant.
• MPOS is a magnet for investment dollars. MPOS has long been a mecca for VC investments, but the expansion of the space from micro-merchants and SMBs to Tier One merchants across a variety of use cases worldwide - has produced a large number of investments and investors focused on helping key players grab market share.
• Switching costs equal sticky customers. Merchant-facing providers recognize that the path to a sticky customer is added functionality; usually integration with back or front office applications that go beyond basic card acceptance, which we said last month, is simply table stakes.
• Integration is the problem to solve. Both NCR and ROAM unveiled business units dedicated to the one issue that becomes more problematic (and therefore a barrier to sales) as merchants get larger - integration.

In order to make the monthly updated easier to read, a new MPOS pyramid will be created each month since it became very crowded to add all the players in the same pyramid. January’s report can be found at: http://www.pymnts.com/briefing-room/mobile/MPOS-Tracker/mpos-tracker/

If you would like to see who’s shifted or exited since the last update, each report will have a “cheat sheet.” Past reports are easily accessible here.

In March, we will debut our MPOS ratings and assessment report, which will be updated quarterly. We have distributed detailed survey forms, including client references, to each Pyramid participant which will be reviewed, and fact checked for accuracy. If you would like to participate or if you would just like to send us comments on this report, please reach out to us at mobilepos@pymnts.com

About ROAM

ROAM helps merchants get to market quickly with secure, cost effective and powerful mobile point of sale solutions, regardless of the technology environment. ROAM’s “powered by” commerce platform provides the hardware peripherals, applications, tools and services to channel partners who want their merchant customers to realize the benefits of using mobile to reinvent their interactions with their customers and to create new business efficiencies. Founded in 2005, ROAM is a pioneer in the mobile POS space, having produced and distributed the industry’s first secure reader and today powers mobile point of sale solutions for many of the leading players in this space, globally. A privately held U.S. corporation, ROAM is majority owned by Ingenico (Euronext: FR0000125346 – ING), the world’s leading provider of payment solutions. For more information, visit www.roamdata.com.

About PYMNTS.com

PYMNTS.com is reinventing the way in which companies in payments share relevant information about the initiatives that shape the future of commerce and make news. This powerful B2B platform is the #1 site for the payments industry by traffic and the premier source of information about “what’s next” in payments. C-suite and VP level executives read it daily for these insights, making the PYMNTS.com audience the most valuable in the industry. It provides an interactive platform for companies to demonstrate thought leadership, popularize products and, most importantly, capture the mindshare of global decision-makers. It’s where the best minds and best content meet on the web.