HEADLINE NEWS

OTI to Supply Contactless and NFC Readers for Gasoline Stations in North America

Israel-based contactless and NFC vendor On Track Innovations announced Monday it had received an order for 30,000 readers for point-of-sale terminals at retail gasoline stations in North America.

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.

Infineon Introduces New Embedded Secure Element, Hoping to Tap Growing Market

Germany-based Infineon Technologies today introduced a new embedded secure element, targeting the growing market for chips that handset makers are including in their NFC-enabled devices.

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.

Taiwan Chip Company Supplies NFC Technology to Low-Cost Phone Maker

Taiwan-based chip maker MStar Semiconductor announced today it is supplying NFC technology to Russia-based phone maker Fly for one or more handsets for the European market to be released as early as next month.

MStar said the first phone would be available in the UK market in February, apparently targeted for the enterprise market for NFC workforce management applications.

Neither MStar nor Fly released the type of NFC models planned for Europe. Fly mainly produces low-cost feature phones for developing markets, such as Russia, other Eastern European countries, and India. It has a few Android models in its portfolio.

“We believe this commercial-focused smartphone-like feature phone integrating NFC technologies will play a critical role for enterprises to improve managerial efficiency,” said Suresh Radhakrishnan, group CEO of Fly, in a statement. “Moreover, we also expect handset solutions with NFC-related applications integrated will be extensively deployed in various mobile-payment consumption markets.” The company was not immediately available to respond to questions from NFC Times.

But MStar indicated the Fly phone or phones for the United Kingdom next month and other Northern European countries in the second quarter will support such NFC workforce management applications as time and attendance. There was no mention of secure element support on the phones.

“With this innovative cross-platform handset application integrating MStar’s mobile communications solutions and advanced RFID technologies, enterprise users can obtain extensive attendance records and real-time information,” MStar said in its announcement.

MStar supplies NFC technology for one phone model supporting China UnionPay's microSD-based mobile-payment application. The model is made by Chinese phone maker K-Touch brand, NFC Times has learned. UnionPay launched the application in a small regional project in Chongqing in the fall, using a specially equipped phone from Taiwan-based HTC. It is expanding the service this year, and has the support of the large China Construction Bank.

The chip-maker specializes in application-specific ICs, or ASIC chips, for various devices, such as LCD monitors, TVs and set-top boxes. It also supplies chips to mobile phones, and has recently added NFC chip technology. The company said it also offers other wireless technologies, such as Bluetooth, WiFi and GPS.

A short article in Taiwan-based DigiTimes said MStar Semiconductor expects orders for chips in NFC-enabled phones will “buoy” sales in 2012.

“We have demonstrated our strong cross-platform capabilities by successfully expanding end-product applications of NFC technologies to both consumer and commercial markets,” said MStar chairman Wayne Liang in a statement, adding that the company would continue to assist customers with “more comprehensive NFC-embedded mobile communication solutions.”

The NFC technology MStar supplies to Chinese phone maker K-Touch in China supports a single-wire protocol connection to the microSD card. The microSDs can store UnionPay’s PBOC 2.0 contactless application. The single-wire protocol, or SWP, connection to the microSD is not yet standardized, as it is for SWP-enabled SIM cards, but enables banks to go around mobile operators to launch mobile payment. Standards organizations are working on the so-called SWP-SD global standard.