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.

Reality Show Tag Trial Seeks to Demo Smart Posters as Ad Medium

A small group of advertising agency staffers will be able to tap their NFC phones on smart posters in New York and Los Angeles starting next week to view videos clips of a reality TV show and link to the show’s Facebook page, according to UK-based NFC application provider Proxama.

The trial follows a similar project in May, in which about 20 ad agency personnel and media buyers could tap 10 to 20 movie posters in London advertising the forthcoming film, X-Men: First Class, to view a preview clip and link to the film’s Facebook page.

The U.S. project involves the VH1 cable television network and its reality TV show Basketball Wives, which in typical reality show fashion follows lives of the spouses, ex-spouses, girlfriends and ex-girlfriends of NBA basketball players.

NFC tags will be embedded in a limited number of outdoor posters advertising the show in New York and Los Angeles, which people with NFC phones would be able to tap to view trailers and link to the show’s Facebook page. The trial is expected to launch next Monday.

As with the X-Men project, Outdoor advertising agency Posterscope and its Hyperspace arm are involved in the new trial, along with Nokia, which will distribute its C7 NFC smartphone, known as the Astound in the United States, to a limited number of ad agents and related personnel. Proxama also offers a data management and reporting tool, in addition to its tag-reading application, for the project. The vendor has an agreement with Nokia to collaborate on development of these types of applications.

While consumers with the Astound, sold through T-Mobile USA, and Google’s Nexus S, along with other standard NFC phones, would be able to tap the posters for the content, the project is not intended for the general public.

“We’re using it as a demonstrator and to showcase to advertising agencies in the U.S.,” Graham Tricker, head of operations at Proxama told NFC Times.

The firm hopes to sell the advertising agencies on NFC smart posters as a medium to deliver ads from merchants and other advertisers.