HEADLINE NEWS

Taiwan Chip Company Supplies NFC Technology to Low-Cost Phone Maker

Published: Jan 31 2012

Taiwan-based chip maker MStar Semiconductor announced today it is supplying NFC technology to Russia-based phone maker Fly for one or more handsets for the European market to be released as early as next month.

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Austrian Bank Announces Plans to Launch Mobile-Payment Service with microSDs and iPhone

Published: Jan 30 2012
Jan 30 2012 (All day)

Raiffeisen Bank International, one of Austria’s largest banks, is planning to launch contactless-mobile payment with microSD cards and an iPhone attachment.

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Samsung Confirms NFC Chip in Galaxy Note, though NFC Version Already Shipping in Korea

Published: Jan 27 2012

Samsung Electronics has confirmed it has an NFC version of its Galaxy Note, though that comes as no surprise to operators in South Korea, which have been selling the tablet-smartphone hybrid with NFC inside for about two months.

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Inside Secure Releases New Android NFC Stack; Accuses NXP of Monopolizing Market

Published: Jan 20 2012

NFC chip supplier Inside Secure has released a new version of its NFC software stack, as it seeks to break rival NXP Semiconductors’ dominance of the market for NFC chips in Android phones.

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Microsoft Requires ‘Visual Mark’ for Windows 8 Devices Supporting NFC

Published: Jan 19 2012

Microsoft is requiring device makers to include a “visual mark” for tablets and PCs supporting NFC and running the software giant’s forthcoming Windows 8 operating system.

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Japan’s KDDI Announces Plans for Small NFC Launch with Galaxy S II

Published: Jan 16 2012
Jan 17 2012 (All day)

Japan’s second largest mobile operator, KDDI, said it would launch Japan’s first mobile NFC service late this month with the Samsung Galaxy S II–though the service will start out small because of the lack of phones that support both standard NFC and Japan's proprietary FeliCa technology, as well as Japan's nearly nonexistent infrastructure of standard contactless readers.

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Spanish Bank Plans To Turn Barcelona into Contactless-Payment City

Published: Jan 12 2012

Large Spanish retail bank La Caixa will begin rolling out 1 million contactless cards along with more than 15,000 point-of-sale terminals and 500 contactless ATMs in Barcelona this month.

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GlobalPlatform and SIMalliance Seek to Build ‘De Facto Standard’ for Accessing Secure Elements

Published: Jan 11 2012
Jan 12 2012 (All day)

The SIMalliance trade group and GlobalPlatform standards organization say they are working on what they predict will become a “de-facto standard” for the way apps on NFC phones communicate with secure elements.

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Sony Unveils Pair of Android NFC Phones and ‘SmartTags’

Published: Jan 11 2012

Sony Ericsson has announced two NFC-enabled Android smartphones and NFC tags for its Xperia series, touting NFC as enabling consumers to share content, as well as “an increasing number of NFC applications.”

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Visa Announces Certification of Six NFC Phone Models for SIM-based payWave

Published: Jan 10 2012
Jan 11 2012 (All day)

Visa has announced its first certifications of NFC phones, approving six models to run its contactless application, payWave, on SIM cards.

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Intel, HP Signal Plans for Supporting NFC on Ultrabooks

Published: Jan 10 2012
Jan 11 2012 (All day)

U.S.-based Intel, as expected, is planning to incorporate NFC technology into chip designs for future ultrabook computers, the vice president and general manager of the chip maker’s PC group said Monday.

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Sprint Announces Two New NFC Phones Supporting Google Wallet

Published: Jan 10 2012

U.S. mobile carrier Sprint has announced two more phones supporting the Google Wallet, including Google’s new Android smartphone, the Galaxy Nexus.

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Features Section

South Korea Takes Lead Globally in NFC Rollouts with Millions of Phones and SIMs

Published: Jan 12 2012
By: 
Dan Balaban

While mobile operators in most other countries are still struggling to roll out even scant volumes of NFC phones that can do payment, ticketing and other applications, South Korea’s telcos have already crossed the 5 million-phone mark–including NFC versions of such high-profile devices as the Samsung Galaxy S II and Galaxy Note.

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The Year Ahead for NFC: Major M-Commerce Rollouts Unlikely Until 2013

Published: Dec 23 2011
By: 
Dan Balaban

2012 was going to be the year that the new era of NFC-based mobile commerce had finally arrived–with Google Wallet rolling out widely, mobile operators in the U.S. and Europe making significant inroads with their own mobile wallets and big Asian m-commerce players generally commercializing NFC, as well.

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Maker of Rugged Phones Enters NFC Market; is Its Price Right?

Published: Sep 23 2011
By: 
Dan Balaban

Sonim Technologies, the maker of rugged work phones, has introduced its first NFC-enabled handset, betting that cleaning companies, security guard firms and home-health care agencies are ready for a more durable–and higher-priced–NFC phone for workforce management.

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UK Contactless to Reach a Tipping Point in 2011?

Published: Jul 27 2011
By: 
Dan Balaban

Contactless payment continues to grow rapidly in the United Kingdom, but transaction volume is still low, and it remains open to debate whether 2011 will be a tipping point for the technology.

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Report: Vast Majority of Consumers Will Need Push to Use NFC Payment

Published: Jul 6 2011
By: 
Dan Balaban

Fewer than 2% of consumers are “highly likely” to adopt NFC payments immediately after the technology is rolled out, according to UK-based research firm Datamonitor.

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Analysis: Quick Tap Launches Fast but Expect Slow Take-up

Published: Jun 9 2011
By: 
Dan Balaban

Mobile operator Orange UK and payment issuer Barclaycard face challenges as they seek to get their “Quick Tap” service off the ground, say UK analysts.

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Infineon to Focus on Market for NFC Secure Elements

Published: May 31 2011
By: 
Dan Balaban

Germany-based chip maker Infineon Technologies has no plans to join its rivals in producing NFC chips–instead focusing on secure elements that can store payment and other applications in NFC phones.

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M-Pesa Mobile-Money Service to Use NFC? Not Anytime Soon

Published: Mar 29 2011
By: 
Dan Balaban

The business development lead for Vodafone Group’s mobile payment solutions unit, which runs the popular M-Pesa mobile funds-transfer service in Kenya, said the telco has no plans to introduce NFC to the offer.

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In Open-Loop Drive, Transit Agencies Can’t Leave Unbanked Behind

Published: Mar 11 2011
By: 
Tom Zind

With Transport for London’s recent announcement confirming it would be the first big transit authority to accept bank cards for bus and metro fares, momentum continues to build for other large transit authorities to go to open-loop payment.

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DoCoMo Reveals Strategy for Its Move to NFC

Published: Mar 4 2011
By: 
Dan Balaban

NTT DoCoMo will sell "hybrid" NFC phones that support both standard NFC and domestic FeliCa technology from Japan’s Sony Corp. when the big telco makes its planned move to NFC late next year.

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