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Near Field Communication and all contactless technology

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.

Struggling video game maker Nintendo will incorporate NFC in its planned Wii U home video game console, including support for payments, the company’s president Satoru Iwata said today.

With the help of NFC technology, airline passengers will routinely tap their mobile phones to pass through security checkpoints and boarding gates by 2018, predicts major airline industry IT and communications services provider SITA.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

German bank Landesbank Berlin will trial mobile payments using microSD cards and a contactless attachment for the iPhone, the bank announced today.

Japan’s three major mobile operators, NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and Softbank Mobile, announced today they have formed the Japan NFC Consortium to help them set standards for making the move to NFC from proprietary FeliCa technology.

South Africa’s Absa bank is launching what it bills as the country’s first NFC trial this month, but is using contactless microSD cards, not full NFC phones for the pilot.

France-based Gemalto has announced its long-held agreement to serve as the trusted service manager for the U.S.-based Isis joint venture, which plans to launch its NFC platform next year.