LOYALTY OFFER
BACKGROUND
[0001] Mobile communication devices such as wireless phones have become a
common part in the everyday life of a wide variety of users. Consequently, the
mobile communication device may serve as a primary point of contact for a variety
of business and personal uses. For example, a business user may utilize the mobile
communication device to receive email, a casual user may send text messages to
friends, either one of the users may share pictures, and so on.
[0002] However, traditional techniques that were employed to securely store data
on the mobile communication device as well as to communicate data to the mobile
communication device could result in the data being "in the clear." Even if but for
a brief moment in time, malicious parties may take advantage of this vulnerability
to steal sensitive data. This may even result in the ability by the malicious party to
access other information on the mobile communication device itself.
Consequently, functionality of the mobile communication device may be limited
from meeting its true potential due to the ability to compromise data on the mobile
communication device.
SUMMARY
[0003] Loyalty offer techniques are described. In one or more implementations,
data is received from a plurality of merchants via a network, the data describing
transactions for goods or services initiated at physical locations of respective
merchants and including identifiers that uniquely identify mobile communication
devices that were used to initiate the transactions. Information is updated that
describes participation in one or more loyalty offers associated with the plurality of
merchants using the identifiers that uniquely identify the mobile communication
devices and the data that describes the transactions.
[0004] In one or more implementations, an input is received to initiate a transaction
to purchase a good or service. One or more credentials are transmitted to a
merchant to purchase the good or service and an identifier that is usable in
conjunction with a loyalty offer associated with the merchant.
[0005] In one or more implementations, a mobile communication device comprises
one or more modules that are configured to provide telephone functionality
including an ability to make and receive telephone calls. The modules are also
configured to communicate one or more identifiers at a physical location of a
merchant that are to be used to identify participation in one or more loyalty offers
associated with the merchant, the one or more identifiers stored locally in memory
of the mobile communication device.
[0006] This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a
simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This
Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the
claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the
scope of the claimed subject matter.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0007] The detailed description is described with reference to the accompanying
figures. In the figures, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number identifies the
figure in which the reference number first appears. The use of the same reference
numbers in different instances in the description and the figures may indicate
similar or identical items.
[0008] FIG. 1 is an illustration of an example implementation of a mobile
communications device in communication with a marketplace in accordance with
one or more embodiments of devices, features, and systems for mobile
communications.
[0009] FIG. 2 is an illustration of a system in an example implementation in which
a mobile communication device of FIG. 1 interacts with a merchant to purchase a
good or service and participate in a loyalty offer.
[0010] FIG. 3 is a flow diagram depicting a procedure in an example
implementation in which a user offer is generated by a loyalty service based on data
received from a merchant.
[0011] FIG. 4 is a flow diagram depicting a procedure in an example
implementation in which a mobile communication device provides credentials and
an identifier to initiate a purchase of a good or service and participate in a loyalty
offer.
[0012] FIG. 5 is a flow diagram depicting a procedure in an example
implementation in which data that describes participation in a loyalty offer is
managed by a loyalty service.
[0013] FIG. 6 illustrates various components of an example device that can be
implemented in various embodiments as any type of a mobile device to implement
embodiments of devices, features, and systems for mobile communications.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Overview
[0014] Loyalty offers may be used by merchants to promote business with the
merchant. For example, a merchant may offer a discount for a purchase of gas for
every "X" amount of groceries purchased, offer an 11th cup of coffee free after
purchase often cups, a discount based on a dollar amount of purchased media, and
so on. In this way, a consumer may be incentivized to purchase goods or services
from a particular merchant.
[0015] However, a consumer may be confronted with a variety of different loyalty
offers from a variety of different merchants. Further, the different merchants may
employ different techniques to track the consumer's loyalty in relation to qualifying
for the offer, such as punch cards, magnetic swipe cards, and so on. Consequently,
a user may be confronted with a wide variety of different types of cards that may
consume a limited amount of space in the user's wallet. Thus, this may be
inefficient and interfere with the user's ability to participate with the loyalty offers.
[0016] Loyalty offer techniques are described. In implementations, a mobile
communication device (e.g., a mobile phone) is utilized to maintain data related to
participation in one or more loyalty offers. For example, the mobile communication
device may be configured to maintain an "electronic wallet" that includes
credentials to purchase goods or services. The wallet may also be configured to
maintain identifiers that may be communicated with the credentials to participate in
a loyalty offer. In this way, a user may efficiently interact with merchants to
purchase goods or services as well as participate in loyalty offers of the merchant.
The loyalty techniques described herein may be leveraged to offer a variety of other
functionality, such as to support generation of user profiles, further discussion of
which may be found in relation to the following sections.
[0017] In the following discussion, a variety of example implementations of a
mobile communication device (e.g., a wireless phone) are described. Additionally,
a variety of different functionality that may be employed by the mobile
communication device is described for each example, which may be implemented
in that example as well as in other described examples. Accordingly, example
implementations are illustrated of a few of a variety of contemplated
implementations. Further, although a mobile communication device having one or
more modules that are configured to provide telephonic functionality are described,
a variety of other mobile devices are also contemplated, such as personal digital
assistants, mobile music players, dedicated messaging devices, portable game
devices, netbooks, and so on.
Example Implementations
[0018] FIG. 1 is an illustration of an example implementation of an environment
100 that is operable to employ the techniques described herein. The environment
includes a service provider 102, a mobile communication device 104, and a
provisioning service 106 that are illustrated as communicatively coupled, one to
another, via a network 108. Although the network 108 is illustrated as the Internet,
the network may assume a wide variety of configurations. For example, the
network 108 may include a wide area network (WAN), a local area network
(LAN), a wireless network, a public telephone network, an intranet, and so on.
Further, although a single network 108 is shown, the network 108 may be
representative of multiple networks.
[0019] The mobile communication device 102 is further illustrated as including a
communication module 110. The communication module 110 is representative of
functionality of the mobile communication device 102 to communicate via the
network 108. For example, the communication module 110 may include telephone
functionality to make and receive telephone calls, such as by employing a
telephone module to communicate via a plain old telephone service (POTS),
wireless network (e.g., cellular and/or Wi-Fi), and so on.
[0020] The communication module 110 may also include a variety of other
functionality, such as to capture content, form short message service (SMS) text
messages, multimedia messaging service (MMS) messages, emails, status updates
to be communicated via a social network service or micro-blog, and so on. For
instance, the communication module 110 may also support browser functionality to
browse the network 108.
[0021] The mobile communication device 104 is further illustrated as including a
secure element 112. In one or more implementations, the secure element 112 is
representative of functionality to support secure communications with the mobile
communication device 104. The secure element 112 may be implemented using
hardware and configured during manufacture to include a private key 114 and a
variety of other keys. For instance, the secure element 112 may be implemented
using a tamper-resistant integrated circuit that is resistant to "snooping" as well as
physical removal from the mobile communication device 104 by a manufacturer of
the device. For example, the manufacturer may cover a surface-mounted integrated
circuit with an epoxy that helps to prevent snooping of the circuit as well as causing
the circuit to break if removal is attempted.
[0022] In implementations, the secure element 112 includes functionality to
perform encryption and/or decryption operations. For example, the secure element
112 may use the private key 114 to perform a decryption operation and expose a
result of the operation to other functionality of the mobile communication device
104, such as to one or more applications 116 that are executable by the mobile
communication device 104. In this example, the secure element 112 may receive
data to be decrypted from the application 116, decrypt the data using the private
key 114, and then expose a result of the decryption operation (i.e., the decrypted
data) to the application 116. Therefore, inclusion of the private key 114 in the
secure element 112 may help to protect the private key 114 from discovery
"outside" the secure element 112 by keeping the private key 114 from being
exposed "in the clear" during the decryption operation.
[0023] A variety of other functionality may also be supported through use of the
secure element 112. For example, the secure element 112 may support a protected
communication channel through the provisioning service 106. The provisioning
service 106, for instance, may include a provisioning module 118 and storage 120.
The storage 120 may be used to maintain a serial number 122 assigned to an
integrated circuit that includes the secure element 112 and a corresponding public
key 124 that forms an asymmetric public/private key pair with the private key 114
of the mobile communication device 104. The provisioning module 118 may thus
provide the public key 124 to third-party services such that communication
between the third-party service and the mobile communication device 104 is
protected, even if that communication occurs using the provisioning service 106 or
other service as an intermediary.
[0024] For example, a user of the mobile communication device 104 may interact
with the communication module 110 or other functionality (e.g., an application
116) to navigate to a service provider 102 over the network 108. The service
provider 102 as illustrated includes a service module 126 that is representative of
functionality to provide one or more services for access via the network 108.
[0025] An example of one of these services is illustrated as implemented by an
application service module 128. The application service module 128 is
representative of functionality to manage dissemination of one or more applications
130 via the network 108. Although the applications 130 are illustrated as stored in
storage 132 local to the service provider 102 (e.g., as part of a server farm that
implements the service provider 102), the storage 132 may be representative of a
wide variety of different types of storage, e.g., third party storage.
[0026] In an example, the application service module 138 manages a marketplace
configured to provide applications 130 for purchase via the network 108.
Therefore, a user of the mobile communication device 104 may access the
marketplace to purchase one or more of the applications 130 for download to local
storage, which is illustrated as application 116 in this example. To purchase and/or
transport the application 130, the mobile communication device 104 and the service
provider 102 may utilize secure communications implemented at least in part
through use of the secure element 112. The secure communications may be
implemented in a variety of ways.
[0027] In one instance, the public key 124 is provided to secure communications
between the service provider 102 and the mobile communication device 104
directly. For example, the public key 124 may be located by the provisioning
module 118 of the provisioning service 106 by obtaining a serial number 122 for
the integrated circuit that implements the secure element 112, e.g., from the mobile
communication device 104. The provisioning module 118 may then use the serial
number 122 to locate the public key 124 and provide the public key 124 to the
service provider 102. The public key 124 may then be used to encrypt data to be
communicated to the mobile communication device 104, such as the application
130, billing information and other credentials, and so on.
[0028] In another instance, the provisioning service 106 provides the public key 124
to the service provider 102 as a basis to support indirect communications, such as
to securely transport credentials and other data (e.g., cryptographic keys) that are to
be used as a basis to form a communication channel. For example, the service
provider 102 may provide credentials (e.g., other cryptographic keys) that are to be
used to secure communications between the service provider 102 and the mobile
communication device 104. To protect these credentials from compromise by
malicious parties, the credentials may be encoded using this public key 124. In
other words, the other cryptographic keys may be encrypted using the public key
124 for communication to the mobile communication device 104 to protect the
other cryptographic keys from discovery by malicious parties.
[0029] In this way, regardless of whether the communication is communicated
indirectly via the provisioning service 106 or directly via the network 108, the
credentials (e.g., the other cryptographic keys) are protected from discovery
through encryption using the public key 124. Therefore, even the provisioning
service 106 itself is not able to determine "what" is being communicated between
the service provider 102 and the mobile communication device 104.
[0030] The mobile communication device 104 may then decrypt the communication
using the secure element 112, and more particularly the private key 114, to obtain
the other cryptographic keys. A variety of different techniques may then be
employed to utilize the other cryptographic keys once decrypted.
[0031] In one technique, the other cryptographic keys are exposed for use outside
the secure element 112, such as by an application 116 or other functionality of the
mobile communication device 104. Thus, in this techniques the secure element 112
is leveraged to provide the credentials that are used to serve as a basis to secure
communications but is not used to secure the communications itself, i.e., to provide
the actual encryption/decryption.
[0032] In another technique, the other cryptographic keys may be kept from being
exposed outside the secure element 112 through storage within the secure element
112. The secure element 112 may then use the cryptographic keys as previously
described to decrypt and/or encrypt data received by the secure element 112
without exposing the cryptographic keys "outside" the secure element 112. The
secure element 112 may thus employ a variety of different techniques to secure
communications with the mobile communication device 104, the example of the
service provider 102 above being but one of many such examples.
[0033] The secure element 112 may be leveraged to provide a variety of different
functionality. For example, a user of the mobile communication device 104 may
navigate to the service provider 102 to obtain a loyalty application 134. The
loyalty application 134 may be provided by a merchant to promote business with a
merchant, such as to implement a loyalty offer (e.g., a rewards program) and other
functionality that may be beneficial to the user. The loyalty application 134 may
then be communicated to the mobile communication device 104 and provisioned
using the techniques previously described in conjunction with the provisioning
service 106. For instance, an identifier may be communicated and stored at the
mobile communication device 104 using the secure communication techniques
described above, e.g., within the secure element 112 or elsewhere in memory. In
this way, the mobile communication device 104 may be configured to maintain
data that may be used in conjunction with a loyalty offer on the mobile
communication device 104. Further, the loyalty application may be used to track
participation with one or more offers, an example of which is illustrated as output
via a user interface on the mobile communication device 104. A variety of other
examples are also contemplated, further discussion of which may be found in
relation to the following figure.
[0034] Generally, any of the functions described herein can be implemented using
software, firmware, hardware (e.g., fixed logic circuitry), manual processing, or a
combination of these implementations. The terms "module," "functionality," and
"logic" as used herein generally represent software, firmware, hardware, or a
combination thereof. In the case of a software implementation, the module,
functionality, or logic represents program code that performs specified tasks when
executed on a processor (e.g., CPU or CPUs). The program code can be stored in
one or more computer readable memory devices, such as random access memory,
read only memory, hard disk drives, optical discs, flash drives, and so on. The
features of the loyalty offer techniques described below are platform-independent,
meaning that the techniques may be implemented on a variety of commercial
computing platforms having a variety of processors.
[0035] FIG. 2 depicts a system 200 in an example implementation in which a
mobile communication device 104 interacts with a merchant to purchase a good or
service and participate in a loyalty offer. The system 200 as illustrated includes the
mobile communication device 104 as well as a merchant 202 and a loyalty service
204.
[0036] The loyalty service 204 may be implemented in a variety of ways, such as a
stand-alone service, part of the provisioning service 106, and so on. The loyalty
service 204 is further illustrated as including a loyalty manager module 206 that is
representative of functionality to maintain one or more loyalty offers 208. Loyalty
offers 208 may be configured in a variety of ways. For example, the loyalty offer
208 may specify a unit of loyalty, such as a number of purchases, a dollar amount,
purchase frequency, and so on.
[0037] The loyalty offer 208 may also specify a threshold for an action relating to
loyalty, such as 5 purchases to get a ten percent discount. These offers may be
generated in a variety of ways, such as based on data received from the merchant
202, through entry in a user interface that is exposed via a network, and so on. The
loyalty service 204 may then be used to manage the loyalty offer 208, an example
of which follows.
[0038] As previously described, the mobile communication device 104 may execute
a variety of different applications 116, such as the loyalty application 134
previously described, a wallet application 210, and so on. The wallet application
210, for instance, may be configured to operate in conjunction with the secure
element 112 to provide credentials to the merchant to purchase a good or service.
Likewise, the loyalty application 134 may be configured to provide an identifier
that may be used to track participation of a user of the mobile communication
device 104 with the loyalty offer 208.
[0039] The identifier may be configured in a variety of ways, such as a unique
identifier assigned by the loyalty service 204 (e.g., that matches a number on a
plastic magnetic swipe card), a unique identifier of the mobile communication
device 104 itself, and so on. Additionally, the loyalty identifier may be stored in a
variety of locations, such as in general memory of the mobile communication
device 104, within the secure element 112, and so on. In this way, the mobile
communication device 104 may serve as an "electronic wallet" to maintain
identifiers related to loyalty offers as well as to facilitate purchases.
[0040] For instance, the mobile communication device 104 may be carried by a user
of the mobile communication device 104 to a physical location of the merchant
202, such as a traditional "bricks and mortar" store. The mobile communication
device 104 may then be used to communicate transaction credentials (e.g., credit
card information, a user login and password, and so on) and a loyalty identifier 212
to the merchant 202 to initiate the transaction. The transaction credentials and
loyalty identifier 212 may be communicated in a variety of ways, such as by using
near field technology to communicate wirelessly over a short distance, via a Wi-Fi
network, via a cellular network, and so on.
[0041] The merchant 202 may then continue processing the transaction credentials
and the loyalty identifier 212 to complete the purchase as well as to process
participation with the loyalty offers 208. For example, the merchant 202 may
employ a transaction module 214 that is representative of functionality to complete
a purchase of a good or service. Likewise, the merchant 202 may employ a loyalty
module 216 to process data describing participation of the mobile communication
device 104 with one or more loyalty offers. Thus, in this example the merchant
202 may perform processing for the transaction and/or the loyalty service.
[0042] The merchant 202 may also employ the loyalty service 204 to perform this
processing. For example, the merchant 202 may communicate transaction and
loyalty data 218 to the loyalty service 204 over a network. The loyalty service 204
may then employ a loyalty manager module 206 to manage participation with the
loyalty offer 208. Likewise, the loyalty service 204 may also include a financial
module 220 that may be configured to process transactions, generate financial
reports 222 describing the transactions (e.g., for processing by another service), and
so on. Further, these techniques may be provided to a plurality of different
merchants for a plurality of different loyalty offers. Thus, the loyalty service 204 in
this example may act as a centralized point (e.g., a clearinghouse) to manage
loyalty offers 208 of merchants 202. Such a service may be provided to the
merchants for a fee.
[0043] Further, although communication through the merchant 202 with the loyalty
service 204 was described, direct communication between the mobile
communication device 104 and the loyalty service 204 may also be supported. For
example, the mobile communication device 104 may communicate point of sale
(POS) transaction and location data 224 to the loyalty service 204. This data may
then be used to manage participate with the loyalty offers 208. Further, this data
may also be used to model user preferences of the mobile communication device
104. For example, the loyalty manager module 206 may include functionality to
model which offers were utilized by the mobile communication device 104.
[0044] Yet further, this modeling may even serve to track other user behavior in
relation to the loyalty offers 208. For example, the loyalty manager module 206
may track other purchases made by the mobile communication device 104, even if
the purchases do not correspond to one or more of the loyalty offers. In this way,
the loyalty service 204 may determine that the loyalty offers 208 were successful at
getting prospective customers "through the door" to purchase goods and services
even if those goods and services were not involved with the offer. Other
functionality is also contemplated, such as to "push" advertisements to the mobile
communication device 104, e.g., advertisements based on the user profile, further
discussion of which may be found in relation to the following procedures.
Example Procedures
[0045] The following discussion describes loyalty offer techniques that may be
implemented utilizing the previously described systems and devices. Aspects of
each of the procedures may be implemented in hardware, firmware, software, or a
combination thereof. The procedures are shown as a set of blocks that specify
operations performed by one or more devices and are not necessarily limited to the
orders shown for performing the operations by the respective blocks. In portions of
the following discussion, reference will be made to the environment 100 and
system 200 of FIGS. 1 and 2, respectively.
[0046] FIG. 3 depicts a procedure 300 in an example implementation in which a
user offer is generated by a loyalty service based on data received from a merchant.
Data is received that describes a respective loyalty offer of one or more of a
plurality of merchants (block 302). The loyalty service 204, for instance, may
receive data from a plurality of merchants 202. The data may describe how to
model the loyalty offer, such as by specifying a unit of loyalty and a threshold for
an action relation to the unit as previously described. A variety of other techniques
may also be employed, such as by exposing a user interface that is accessible over
the network 108 to model a loyalty offer.
[0047] The respective loyalty offer is modeled using the data (block 304).
Continuing with the previous example, the loyalty offer 208 may then be modeled
based on the data and managed by the loyalty service 204, further discussion of
which may be found in relation to FIG. 5.
[0048] FIG. 4 depicts a procedure 400 in an example implementation in which a
mobile communication device provides credentials and an identifier to initiate a
purchase of a good or service and participate in a loyalty offer. An application is
obtained that is configured to interact with a merchant (block 402). The mobile
communication device 104, for example, may navigate over the network 108 to an
application store maintained by the application service module 128. The mobile
communication device 104 may then select the loyalty application 134 for
download for free or for a fee, which may cause the application to be stored locally
on the mobile communication device 104 as shown in FIG. 2.
[0049] The application is provisioned on the mobile communication device (block
404). The mobile communication device 104, for instance, may leverage the secure
element 112 and provisioning service 106 to provision the loyalty application 134,
such as to obtain a unique identifier for use by the mobile communication device
104. Other examples are also contemplated, such as to manually input an identifier
from a plastic loyalty card obtained by a consumer.
[0050] An input is received to initiate a transaction to purchase a good or service
(block 406). In an implementation, the mobile communication device 104 may be
utilized as an "electronic wallet" to facilitate purchases and participation in the
loyalty offers 208. Accordingly, the mobile communication device 104 may
communicate credentials with a merchant, e.g., through use of a secure element and
near field technology.
[0051] An identifier is located that is usable in conjunction with a loyalty offer
associated with a merchant from a plurality of identifiers that are stored locally on
the mobile communication device (block 408). Continuing with the previous
example, the mobile communication device 104 may also leverage the secure
element 112 to maintain identifiers to be used in conjunction with a loyalty offer
208. Accordingly, the mobile communication device 104 may locate an identifier
that corresponds to the merchant (e.g., via a merchant ID).
[0052] One or more credentials are transmitted to the merchant to purchase the
good or service and an identifier that is usable in conjunction with the loyalty offer
associated with the merchant (block 410). Once the identifier and the credentials
(e.g., credit card information) are located, the mobile communication device 104
may provide the credentials and the identifier to the merchant 202 via one or more
communications performed using secure techniques. Unsecured techniques are
also contemplated without departing from the spirit and scope thereof.
[0053] FIG. 5 depicts a procedure 500 in an example implementation in which data
that describes participation in a loyalty offer is managed by a loyalty service. Data
is received form a plurality of merchants via a network, the data describing
transactions for good or services initiated at physical locations of respective
merchants and including identifiers that uniquely identify mobile communication
devices that were used to initiate the transactions (block 502). As previously
described, the identifier may be generated by the loyalty service 204, be assigned to
the mobile communication device 104 at manufacture, and so on. Further, the
loyalty service 204 may work as a centralized clearinghouse for loyalty offers 208
for a plurality of different merchants 202.
[0054] Accordingly, information may be updated that describes participation in one
or more loyalty offers associated with the plurality of merchants using the
identifiers that unique identify the mobile communication device and the data that
describes the transactions (block 504). Thu, the loyalty service 204 may work to
outsource loyalty tracking by the merchants 202. The loyalty service 204 may also
provide a variety of other functionality.
[0055] For example, the loyalty service may be used to generate a user profile that
corresponds to at least one of the identifiers and that is based on data that describes
the transactions (block 506). In this example, the loyalty service 204 may use the
unique identifier to track purchases of goods or services. The identifier may also
be used to track presence of the mobile communication device 102 at a physical
location of a merchant 202 even if a purchase has not been made, such as by
manually scanning the mobile communication device 104 or employing other
techniques that may be used to detect the mobile communication device 104 by the
merchant. Thus, the loyalty service 204 may generate the user profile to provide a
comprehensive view of likes and dislikes of prospective consumers, which may be
leveraged to perform a variety of functionality such as to push an advertisement to
the mobile communication device (block 508).
Example Device
[0056] FIG. 6 illustrates various components of an example device 600 that can be
implemented in various embodiments as any type of a mobile device to implement
embodiments of devices, features, and systems for mobile communications. For
example, device 600 can be implemented as any of the mobile communications
devices 102 described with reference to respective FIGS. 1-2. Device 600 can also
be implemented to access a network-based service, such as a social network service
as previously described.
[0057] Device 600 includes input 602 that may include Internet Protocol (IP) inputs
as well as other input devices, such as the keyboard 112 of FIG. 1. Device 600
further includes communication interface 604 that can be implemented as any one
or more of a wireless interface, any type of network interface, and as any other type
of communication interface. A network interface provides a connection between
device 600 and a communication network by which other electronic and computing
devices can communicate data with device 600. A wireless interface enables
device 600 to operate as a mobile device for wireless communications.
[0058] Device 600 also includes one or more processors 606 (e.g., any of
microprocessors, controllers, and the like) which process various computerexecutable
instructions to control the operation of device 600 and to communicate
with other electronic devices. Device 600 can be implemented with computerreadable
media 608, such as one or more memory components, examples of which
include random access memory (RAM) and non-volatile memory (e.g., any one or
more of a read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, EPROM, EEPROM, etc.).
[0059] Computer-readable media 608 provides data storage to store content and
data 610, as well as device applications and any other types of information and/or
data related to operational aspects of device 600. For example, an operating system
612 can be maintained as a computer application with the computer-readable media
608 and executed on processor 606. Device applications can also include a
communication manager module 614 (which may be used to provide telephonic
functionality) and a media manager 616.
[0060] Device 600 also includes an audio and/or video output 618 that provides
audio and/or video data to an audio rendering and/or display system 620. The
audio rendering and/or display system 620 can be implemented as integrated
component(s) of the example device 600, and can include any components that
process, display, and/or otherwise render audio, video, and image data. Device 600
can also be implemented to provide a user tactile feedback, such as vibrate and
haptics.
[0061] Generally, the blocks may be representative of modules that are configured
to provide represented functionality. Further, any of the functions described herein
can be implemented using software, firmware (e.g., fixed logic circuitry), manual
processing, or a combination of these implementations. The terms "module,"
"functionality," and "logic" as used herein generally represent software, firmware,
hardware or a combination thereof. In the case of a software implementation, the
module, functionality, or logic represents program code that performs specified
tasks when executed on a processor (e.g., CPU or CPUs). The program code can
be stored in one or more computer readable memory devices. The features of the
techniques described above are platform-independent, meaning that the techniques
may be implemented on a variety of commercial computing platforms having a
variety of processors.
Conclusion
[0062] Although the invention has been described in language specific to structural
features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the invention
defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or
acts described. Rather, the specific features and acts are disclosed as example
forms of implementing the claimed invention.
CLAIMS
What is claimed is:
1. A method implemented by a mobile communication device, the
method comprising:
receiving an input to initiate a transaction to purchase a good or service; and
transmitting one or more credentials to a merchant to purchase the good or
service and an identifier that is usable in conjunction with a loyalty offer associated
with the merchant.
2. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the identifier is unique to
the mobile communication device.
3. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the input is received
responsive to selection of a portion in a user interface output by the mobile
communication device to initiate the transaction.
4. A method as described in claim 3, wherein the user interface is
generated at least in part by an application downloaded to the mobile
communication device via an Internet and provided by the merchant.
5. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the receiving of the input
by the mobile communication device from the merchant and the transmitting of the
one or more credentials to the merchant are performed at a physical location of the
merchant.
6. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the receiving of the input
by the mobile communication device from the merchant and the transmitting of the
one or more credentials to the merchant are performed using near field technology.
7. A method as described in claim 1, further comprising locating the
identifier that is usable in conjunction with the loyalty offer associated with the
merchant from a plurality of said identifiers that are stored locally on the mobile
communication device.
8. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the mobile communication
device includes telephone functionality to make and receive telephone calls.
9. A method as described in claim 1, further comprising receiving an
indication of a discount to be applied to the transaction responsive to the
transmitting.
10. A method implemented by one or more servers of a loyalty service,
the method comprising:
receiving data from a plurality of merchants via a network, the data
describing transactions for goods or services initiated at physical locations of
respective said merchants and including identifiers that uniquely identify mobile
communication devices that were used to initiate the transactions; and
updating information that describes participation in one or more loyalty
offers associated with the plurality of merchants using the identifiers that uniquely
identify the mobile communication devices and the data that describes the
transactions.
11. A method as described in claim 10, wherein the identifier is generated
as part of a respective said loyalty offer.
12. A method as described in claim 10, wherein at least one of the
identifiers is also written on a loyalty card provided by a respective said merchant.
13. A method as described in claim 10, wherein the mobile
communication devices initiate the transactions by providing credentials that are
usable to purchase the goods or services.
14. A method as described in claim 10, further comprising receiving data
that describes a respective said loyalty offer of one or more of the plurality of
merchants and modeling the respective said loyalty offer using the data.
15. A method as described in claim 10, further comprising generating a
user profile that corresponds to at least one said identifier and that is based on the
data that describes the transactions.