HEADLINE NEWS

ZTE: Europe is Next Target for NFC Phones

Published: May 21 2012

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

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Samsung to Embed Secure Element in Galaxy S III, Other NFC Phones

Published: May 14 2012
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.

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American Express Onboard for Isis Two-City Launch

Published: May 11 2012

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.

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HTC Steps Up NFC Phone Presence with Three High-End Handsets

Published: May 9 2012
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.

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MasterCard Unveils Wallet Offer; Expands PayPass Name to Online Transactions

Published: May 7 2012

NEW ORLEANS – MasterCard today announced its answer to Visa’s digital wallet and other wallets planned by competitors, introducing its PayPass Wallet Services.

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MasterCard Announces NFC Device Certifications; New NFC Mark

Published: May 4 2012
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.

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Samsung Unveils Galaxy S III, Supporting NFC Payments and Enhanced P2P

Published: May 3 2012
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.

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Barnes & Noble First E-Reader Seller to Disclose Plans for NFC Support

Published: May 2 2012

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.

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Airline to Introduce NFC App Following Successful Sticker Launch

Published: May 1 2012
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.

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Report: Google and PayPal Challenge UK Joint Venture Plans

Published: Apr 30 2012

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.

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Telefónica UK Launches O2 Wallet; Promises NFC Later in 2012

Published: Apr 26 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.

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Wentker Departs Visa; Bains Leaves GSM Association

Published: Apr 25 2012

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.

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U.S.: Discover Financial to Trial iPhone Attachment with Employees

Published: Nov 5 2011
Chicago and Salt Lake City, United States
Scope: 
Trial
Status: 
Planned
Launch: 
Nov 2011
Main Application: 
Payment
Mobile Operator: 
N/A
Service Provider (application): 
Discover Financial Services (Zip)
Merchants: 
About 120,000 locations
Users: 
400-500
NFC Handsets: 
N/A
TSM*: 
N/A
Secure Element: 
Embedded
Other Vendors: 
Wireless Dynamics (iCarte iPhone attachment) NXP Semiconductors (NFC chip, embedded secure element)

Discover Financial will conduct a pilot with 400 to 500 employees who work at Discover’s headquarters office near Chicago and a regional office in Salt Lake City, Utah. Discover will preload its Zip contactless application onto the embedded secure chip in the NFC add-on for iPhone 4 and 4S users along with users of earlier iPhone versions, according to Discover. They’ll be able to tap anywhere Zip is accepted, which is roughly 120,000 locations in the United States. The attachment carries a full NFC chip along with the embedded secure element, both from Netherlands-based NXP Semiconductors.

NFC Times Take: 

The discover trial is believed to be the first test of the iCarte attachment in the United States. South Korean telco KT, which has launched NFC commercially, launched a small rollout of the attachement this fall for its iPhone users. Australia’s Commonwealth Bank also plans a launch, and the device, which has been trialed in Turkey and a couple of other places. With Apple declining to build NFC into its iPhone 4S announced in October 2011, more trials or small rollouts using the device and related bridge technologies are likely.

 

* 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: Nov. 2011