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Citigroup and MasterCard Worldwide will soon announce an NFC mobile-payment service in the United States with Google–with plans calling for Citi to issue a prepaid MasterCard PayPass application to be loaded onto Google’s Nexus S and perhaps other Android phones, NFC Times has learned.

Google’s Android operating system has a bug that creates headaches for application developers wanting to enable users to send SMS messages after tapping NFC tags.

Google NFC software engineers, while touting the “dozens” of NFC phones in the pipeline and prospects for compelling applications using tag reading and peer-to-peer communication, downplayed use of Android phones for payment with secure chips.

NFC phone shipments could approach 100 million units this year if Google’s rosy projections for Android NFC smartphone shipments come to pass, NXP Semiconductors CEO Richard Clemmer said during a conference call following release of the chip maker’s first quarter results.

NXP Semiconductors, supplier of NFC chips and software for Android smartphones, has developed its own Android app for those phones–enabling users to write content to NFC tags.

Research in Motion is continuing to decline comment on its plans for embedded secure chips in its forthcoming BlackBerry NFC phones.

Doubts are growing that Apple will include NFC in the next iPhone, with sources from some mobile operators reportedly saying Apple has told them it would not adopt the technology this year.

An update to Google’s latest Android operating system, Gingerbread, is now reportedly available, offering some added NFC functionality, though not yet card emulation.

BARCELONA – Smartphones that can pinpoint a person’s location, know his interests and tap to pay with NFC should "revolutionize electronic commerce as well as payments," said Google CEO Eri

BARCELONA – As expected, Samsung Electronics has introduced an NFC-capable follow-up to its popular Galaxy S Android smartphone, the Galaxy S II, which it unveiled at a pre-opening event at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.