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.

ZTE: Europe is Next Target for NFC Phones

China-based phone maker ZTE indicated it will be targeting Europe with its NFC phones, although it did not specify models or release dates.

ZTE made the statement today as part of an announcement of its low-end Racer II Android phone being used as part of an NFC wallet rollout in Turkey.

Turkey’s largest mobile operator, Turkcell, announced it was using the NFC-enabled ZTE model months ago, having put it on sale in January. It slapped its own brand on the NFC version of the Racer II, calling it the T11. The phone followed Turkcell’s self-branded T20 Android NFC phone, from another Chinese handset maker, Huawei, which the telco introduced last year.

The T20 and T11 are among at least four phones supporting NFC applications on SIM cards Turkcell issues for its NFC mobile wallet, Cep-T Cüzdan.

ZTE in its announcement today called the Turkcell phone the first SIM-based NFC phone worldwide supporting both banking and toll-collection applications.

Turkcell in January said the ZTE phone would be its first NFC handset supporting Turkey’s contactless toll-collection system, KGS, which enables users to tap to pay tolls at bridges and highways in Istanbul and around Turkey, using Mifare technology.

Turkcell’s NFC SIMs and phones also support MasterCard PayPass payment applications from four issuers, Yapı Kredi, Garanti Bank, Akbank and, most recently, Denizbank.

It’s unclear why ZTE decided to promote use of its low-end Racer II for NFC four months after the launch of the NFC version of the phone in Turkey.

But ZTE, which ranked as the fourth largest supplier of mobile phones worldwide in the fourth quarter, according to U.S.-based research firm Gartner, could be gearing up to push NFC more broadly soon.

“Our next target is Europe, and the product we offer with Turkcell has already seen strong success,” Kan Yulun, vice president and chief technology officer for ZTE said in a statement.

ZTE at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this year announced NFC support for higher-end Android phones, the PF200 and Blade II, reportedly along with the ZTE Kis. None of the phones has yet been released, and the Blade II and perhaps the others could support NFC only as a carrier-ordered option.

Also at the Mobile World Congress in February, ZTE announced a forthcoming “Touch and Share”  feature for its NFC phones, which uses NFC to pair devices more quickly via Bluetooth or WiFi.