HEADLINE NEWS

Taxis in Major U.S. Cities to Get NFC-Enabled Video Ads

Riders in 5,000 taxicabs in the U.S. would be able to tap on NFC tags on video advertising screens to download apps, brand information, coupons, maps, music and videos, according to technology suppliers that have equipped the taxis for potential advertising campaigns.

Analyst: Banks Have More to Fear from Cloud-Based Technologies Than NFC

Banks have much more to fear from cloud-based mobile payment than from NFC, even if mobile operators control the secure elements that hold the banks’ payment applications.

GSMA Proposes Global Standard for NFC-Enabled Loyalty and Couponing–Using SIM Cards

May 10 2013 (All day)

The GSMA mobile operator trade group is proposing a global standard for how point-of-sale terminals talk to NFC-enabled mobile wallets to enable consumers to redeem coupons and rewards.

Taiwanese Bank Gets Approval for NFC-Enabled Credit Cards; Okay for Other Banks Expected

Taiwanese banking regulators, as expected, have approved the first bank to issue mobile credit cards that could be downloaded over the air to SIM cards.

UK Retailer Marks & Spencer Sees Growing Use of Contactless

Marks & Spencer, one of the UK’s largest retailers, announced today it had rolled out contactless payment to 644 of its UK stores and said 14% of its card transactions under £20 (US$30.97) are contactless.

Identive Reports Growing NFC Business; Blames Flat Sales, Losses, on U.S. Budget Cuts

U.S.-based Identive Group reported growing NFC and smart card reader business, but fell back into the red during for the first quarter, a loss it largely blamed on U.S. federal government budget cuts.

German Bank and Telco Hold Small NFC Trial; Larger Launches Planned in Country This Year

As Germany gears up for NFC, German bank Dortmunder Volksbank along with Telefónica (O2) Germany have launched a small pilot putting a credit application onto SIM cards in Western Germany.

Cashless Technology Company Announces Rollout of Isis SmartTap on Vending Machines

Vending technology company USA Technologies plans to integrate the SmartTap mobile-commerce software into all of the company’s nearly 100,000 NFC-enabled terminals on vending machines nationwide.

Vendor Group: NFC Secure Element Market to Grow by Two-Thirds This Year

Smart card vendor association Eurosmart has substantially increased its estimate for NFC secure element shipments for 2012–by 50% to 150 million units–and forecasts that secure element shipments will grow by another 67% in 2013 to 250 million units.

Gemalto Reveals Some Details of MCX Deal; Vendor Will Earn Fees for Transactions

France-based smart card and security vendor Gemalto will operate the mobile-payment platform for U.S. merchant group MCX, earning a fee for every transaction, in addition to what appears to be a hosting fee it says is worth tens of millions.

Inside Reports NFC Revenue Down Sharply in First Quarter; Some Recovery Expected in Q2

France-based chip supplier Inside Secure today reported a sharp decline in its revenue in the first quarter from its NFC chips, blaming the situation on excess inventories of NFC chips on hand by its main customer BlackBerry.

Australian Supermarket Chain Sees Fast Take-Up of Contactless Payment

More than half of credit card transactions at Australian supermarket chain Coles are contactless, and the merchant hit the milestone just over six months after rolling out contactless terminals across its more than 700 supermarkets.

NXP Confirms Chip Supply for Huawei Android Phone

NXP Semiconductors has announced it is supplying the NFC chip for the Android phone launched this summer by Turkish operator Turkcell and made by Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei.

The maker of the chip was in little doubt, since the Turkcell-branded T20 phone, also known as the Huawei U8650NFC Sonic, supports Google’s Android-Gingerbread operating system. NXP is believed to be supplying all of the NFC chips for Android phones, at least those coming to market over the next several months. NXP also supplies NFC software that runs on the Android phones.

As NFC Times first reported in June, Turkcell, Turkey’s No. 1 mobile operator, is the first to launch the Huawei NFC phone. The phone supports the telco’s mobile wallet, Cep-T Cüzdan, and a MasterCard Worldwide PayPass application issued by Turkish bank Yapı Kredi. Garanti bank, another large Turkish bank, is following with a PayPass application for the phone.

Turkcell officially launched the T20 in early July, but did not mention the NFC chip maker. So NXP, with its announcement today, is seeking to capitalize on the first NFC-enabled Android phone model in the market used for payment and multiple secure applications.

Google’s Nexus S 4G, which will run the Google Wallet and a PayPass application issued by Citigroup, along with a separate Google-branded prepaid PayPass application, is set to launch this fall.

NXP, while owning the large majority of design wins from handset makers planning NFC phones, took a public relations hit in late July when it sharply reduced its projection for NFC phone shipments this year to 40 million or fewer. That’s based on lower-than-expected shipments of NFC-enabled Android phones.

The Nexus S carries an NXP chip, the PN65, which is stacked with an embedded secure element that is also supplied by the Netherlands-based chip maker. The Huawei Android phone, on the other hand, carries NXP’s PN544 NFC chip, which supports only the single-wire protocol and applications on SIM cards.

Huawei Technologies, which is mainly a supplier of telecom network infrastructure, ranked as the 9th largest maker of mobile phones in the second quarter of 2011, shipping an estimated 9 million units, according to U.S.-based research firm Gartner.

The vendor is expected to introduce the U8650NFC Sonic in other markets and to produce other affordable NFC-enabled Android smartphones. Those phones likely would carry an NXP chip.

MasterCard granted a waiver to Turkcell to use the T20 for PayPass, but the telco said the phone is undergoing certification testing for performance and security. Turkcell is planning more of its own branded NFC phones to support its mobile wallet, NFC Times has learned.