HEADLINE NEWS

Samsung to Embed Secure Element in Galaxy S III, Other NFC Phones

May 14 2012 (All day)

Samsung Electronics and NXP Semiconductors have confirmed that Samsung’s next flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S III, will sport an embedded secure chip, in addition to supporting applications on SIM cards.

American Express Onboard for Isis Two-City Launch

American Express and Isis have announced that AmEx plans to participate in the two large NFC pilots Isis plans to launch this summer in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Austin, Texas.

HTC Steps Up NFC Phone Presence with Three High-End Handsets

May 10 2012 (All day)

New Orleans – Phone maker HTC is displaying three high-end NFC phones at the International CTIA Wireless show in New Orleans, including its Droid Incredible 4G LTE, destined for U.S.

MasterCard Unveils Wallet Offer; Expands PayPass Name to Online Transactions

NEW ORLEANS – MasterCard today announced its answer to Visa’s digital wallet and other wallets planned by competitors, introducing its PayPass Wallet Services.

MasterCard Announces NFC Device Certifications; New NFC Mark

May 9 2012 (All day)

MasterCard has announced certifications for 17 NFC phones as well as its own mark that handset makers could display on device packaging, advertisements or even on the devices themselves, showing the phone is able to do contactless payments with MasterCard PayPass.

Samsung Unveils Galaxy S III, Supporting NFC Payments and Enhanced P2P

May 4 2012 (All day)

Samsung Electronics has introduced its much-anticipated Galaxy S III, which, as expected, will support NFC for mobile payment, along with an enhanced version of Google’s Android Beam peer-to-peer pairing-and-sharing feature.

Barnes & Noble First E-Reader Seller to Disclose Plans for NFC Support

In a first for an e-reader seller, the CEO of bookstore chain Barnes & Noble said the company plans to include NFC chips in its Nook e-readers, which he said could make the connection between the devices and the company’s physical stores.

Airline to Introduce NFC App Following Successful Sticker Launch

May 3 2012 (All day)

Scandinavian Airlines plans to introduce an NFC application for frequent flyers as early as this summer, enabling those with Android NFC phones to tap for a faster flow through check-in, security screening and boarding.

Report: Google and PayPal Challenge UK Joint Venture Plans

Google and PayPal have reportedly expressed concerns to European antitrust regulators, saying they fear that if major UK mobile operators are allowed to form their proposed NFC mobile-commerce joint venture, they would have too much power to control secure elements in NFC phones, the Financial Times reported Sunday.

Telefónica UK Launches O2 Wallet; Promises NFC Later in 2012

Telefónica UK, known as O2, launched its long anticipated O2 Wallet today, offering text-based money transfers and online product searches and purchasing, but no NFC yet.

Wentker Departs Visa; Bains Leaves GSM Association

Dave Wentker, considered the No. 2 man in Visa Inc.’s mobile-payment unit and a former vice chairman of the NFC Forum, has left the payment network after more than 15 years, NFC Times has learned.

Oberthur Gets Telco Group TSM Contract but Loses Key French Bank

France-based Oberthur Technologies has won a key contract to serve as trusted service manager for France Telecom-Orange group, but lost a TSM contract with big French bank BNP Paribas, NFC Times has learned.

Nokia Introduces Its Second NFC-enabled Smartphone

Nokia has introduced its second NFC-enabled smartphone, the N9, which enables users to share photos, videos and music by tapping devices together.

The high-end phone, introduced today in Singapore, is Nokia’s first NFC device supporting the MeeGo operating system. It continues the Finnish handset maker’s push for what it calls “open NFC”–applications that don’t require a secure element.

A Nokia spokesman confirmed to NFC Times that the phone does not support card emulation or a secure element. Nokia said in its press announcement that the device enables users to “easily share images and videos between devices by touching them together. 

“Pair it with Bluetooth accessories like the new NFC-enabled Nokia Play 360° wireless music speaker only once, and you get a great surround sound music experience with just a tap,” said Nokia in a statement.

Nokia’s first NFC-enabled smartphone, the C7, a Symbian device, also does not support card emulation and does not have a secure embedded chip or support for SIM-based applications. Nokia enabled the phone for tag reading and P2P applications in April.

Among other applications, the N9 is expected to support the NFC version of the Angry Birds video game, dubbed Angry Birds “Magic,” which allows users to advance to additional levels of the game by tapping their NFC phones to NFC phones of their friends. The C7 supports the game as part of a Nokia-funded tie-in with Angry Birds maker Rovio.

The N9 features Nokia’s new screen design, which dispenses with a home key button. Users swipe their finger across the edge of the 3.9-inch AMOLED screen to return to the home screen. MeeGo, an open-source operating system that, like Symbian, supports Nokia’s Ovi apps, is part of the phone maker’s joint project with chip maker Intel.

In April, Nokia’s vice president for industry collaborations, Mark Selby, speaking at the WIMA NFC conference in Monaco, contended that NFC applications not securely stored on SIM cards, embedded chips or other secure elements will account for two-thirds of the revenue that NFC technology will generate through 2013. He did not release actual figures for the internal market estimates.

These “open” NFC services use tag-reading or peer-to-peer communication features on NFC phones, such those involving consumers tapping their phones on smart posters to download coupons or on packages to receive product information. Or they would tap tags to check in on social networking sites. The services also could include payment and ticketing using the NFC tag-reading or P2P modes, with security not on a secure chip but based in the cloud, said Selby.

Most payment and ticketing applications will be stored on secure chips, however, and Selby added in April that Nokia would also support them in future NFC phones.

“I’m not saying secure (element-based) NFC is bad,” said Selby. “(Just) do not focus exclusively on that area because it is the smaller (opportunity). Whether I’m talking about Groupon, Foursquare or Facebook, there is an extraordinary value, and NFC has a role to play in this.”

Nokia has said it plans to produce several more Symbian phones this year and next, despite its move to the Windows Phone 7 platform. Some of the Symbian phones are expected to support NFC. 

As NFC Times has reported, Microsoft plans to incorporate NFC in Windows Phone.