In the most exciting event of the contest, speed cards, competitors race to commit a single pack of playing cards to memory as fast as possible.
The app doesn't offer as many design choices as some e-card competitors do, and those it offers are attractive, but relatively generic choices: a white reindeer on a red background, "Happy Holidays" written above snow and trees, wrapped presents and balloons with "Happy Birthday" scrawled above, etc.
Not only was Sincerely launched first, its Cards competitor Sincerely Ink offers a better selection with better designs.
"They're playing a card their competitors don't have," said Richard F. Dougherty, the founder of Envisioneering, a technology market research company in Seaford, N.Y., who was at the conference.
Adding to that, Clover promises the same ease of use, and sleek form factor as some card processing competitors.
For Citi, the idea is to get consumers using their Citi cards rather than competitors' cards on big purchases, Mr. Linville said.
And in a statement, Timothy M. Lynch, Kodak's chief intellectual property officer, said, "The bidding procedures are designed to allow bidders to give us their best offers without fear of showing their cards to competitors".
Unlike card-linked competitors edo and Cartera, CardSpring is not a merchant-facing platform itself.
However, CardSpring itself – unlike card-linked competitors edo and Cartera – is not a merchant-facing platform.
"The bidding procedures are designed to allow bidders to give us their best offers without fear of showing their cards to competitors," said the firm's chief intellectual property officer, Timothy Lynch.
