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.

France: Merchant to Launch Large Tag-based Mobile-Shopping Trial

Paris, France
Scope: 
Trial
Status: 
Planned
Launch: 
Oct 2012
Main Application: 
Service discovery–mobile shopping
Mobile Operator: 
N/A
Service Provider (application): 
Groupe Casino (mCasino)
Merchants: 
One supermarket in Paris
Users: 
50-500
NFC Handsets: 
BlackBerry Bold 9900
NFC Handsets: 
BlackBerry Bold 9790
NFC Handsets: 
BlackBerry Curve
NFC Handsets: 
Samsung Galaxy S III (possible), other Android NFC phones
TSM*: 
N/A
Other Vendors: 
Think&Go (mCasino NFC app, mobile-shopping system), NFC Semiconductors (chips for tags), Wireless Dynamics (iCarte attachment)

The project will enable participating shoppers to load products into a digital shopping basket on their smartphones by tapping the phones on tags embedded in any of 25,000 electronic shelf labels in a Casino supermarket in Paris. They would then upload the basket at the checkout counter by resting the phone on an NFC reader. By tapping the tags, shoppers could also get more information on the products. And using the retailer’s “mCasino” smartphone app, the consumers could set alerts to tell them, for example, if a product contains any ingredients they are allergic to, or if their mobile shopping basket is nearing their preset budget limit. The app also tells shoppers about discounts, which would be taken off the price of the product in the mobile shopping basket, not at the checkout counter. The app will be available for Android and BlackBerry NFC phones along with the iPhone through use of an NFC attachment, iCarte. But users will have to pay for their purchases separately, since NFC payment is not integrated into the app and no secure element is involved in the trial.

 

NFC Times Take: 

The trial is part of a larger push by groupe Casino, one of France’s largest retailers, to enable mobile shopping. But Casino is not enabling payment or integrating any payment service with its mobile app since, at least for the present, it wants to avoid working with mobile operators or renting space on their SIM cards.

 

* Trusted Service Manager: Defined loosely to include companies or other organizations securely distributing, provisioning and managing applications, generally over the air, on secure elements in NFC mobile phones; or licensing their platforms for this purpose.
 
N/A: Not available or not applicable.
 
Last update: Sept. 2012