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.

Orange to Introduce NFC Version of Galaxy S II in France

Sep 23 2011 (All day)

SOPHIA ANTIPOLIS, FRANCE – France’s largest mobile operator, France Telecom-Orange, has announced it will introduce the NFC version of the popular Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone next month.

Orange is believed to be the first mobile operator outside of South Korea to announce concrete plans to introduce the NFC version of Samsung’s flagship smartphone. It’s also one of the first announcements by a mobile operator in Europe to deploy an NFC-enabled Android phone of any kind. Updated: France Telecom group operator Orange UK is also expected to get the NFC version of the Galaxy S II this year for its Quick Tap NFC service. End update.   

The Galaxy S II, the follow-up to Samsung’s best-selling Galaxy S, will add to four other NFC phones Orange France has on sale in its shops. Three of the others, from Samsung and LG Electronics, are feature phones. The other is the Wave 578, supporting Samsung’s own bada operating system. 

All of the five phones support the single-wire protocol standard and applications on SIM cards.

Orange had wanted to launch the Galaxy S II with NFC earlier, but had to develop software for the phones to support French NFC services, a source said. Orange put the non-NFC version of the phone on sale earlier this year. Samsung announced last July that it had sold 5 million units of the Galaxy S II in fewer than three months after introducing it in Asia and Europe–a faster rate than the Galaxy S.

The addition of the Galaxy S II could help Orange's attempt to reach its tough goal of selling 500,000 NFC phones in France by the end of 2011. To date, it has only distributed 150,000 NFC phones, the telco disclosed.

There are still few places for French consumers to use the NFC phones. Nonetheless, Orange said it plans to issue more expensive NFC-enabled SIM cards to all new subscribers starting next year.

“Our objective, of course, is to seed the market with handsets and SIMs to trigger the development of services,” said Thierry Millet, vice president for mobile payments and contactless services at Orange group, speaking at the NFC World Congress Monday in Sophia Antipolis, France, which is near Nice.

Millet, who assumed the post at Orange two months ago, predicted the telco would have 15 to 20 NFC phone models on sale in its French shops by next year. 

Nice is the only city in France where NFC services are available, mainly for transit ticketing, payment and tag-reading. Orange, along with other major French mobile operators and service providers, launched NFC in Nice in May of 2010 as a demonstration project for the technology.

A second French city, Strasbourg, site of a couple of earlier NFC trials, plans to launch NFC next month in a project similar to the one in Nice.

A number of other cities are interested, including Marseille, Bordeaux and Caen. The cities can get funding to cover noncommercial infrastructure and software development costs from the French government, which is putting up €20 million (US$27.2 million) to encourage NFC rollouts. 

Among the few operators that have launched NFC-enabled Android phones in Europe is Turkcell, which launched a lower-cost Android phone in Turkey made by Chinese equipment maker Huawei in the summer.