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Near Field Communication and all contactless technology

U.S.-based chip maker Broadcom, whose Wi-Fi and Bluetooth combination wireless chips are found in such popular smartphones as the Samsung Galaxy S III and Apple iPhone 5, has announced NFC support for one of its next wireless combo chips.

Apple is not expected to support NFC in its next iPhone, which is scheduled to be unveiled tomorrow, with the tech giant apparently content to wait until the NFC infrastructure and technology develops further, key observers tell NFC Times.

U.S.-based chip giant Texas Instruments today announced the industry’s first combo wireless chips incorporating NFC, with its WiLink 8.0 series, which are expected to be incorporated in smartphones and other mobile devices, such as tablets, ultrathin laptops and eBooks.

While handset makers are beginning to ship more popular smartphone models with NFC inside, some key industry observers say they expect significantly fewer than 40 million NFC phones will be shipped for all of 2011.

U.S.-based chip maker Broadcom, a top supplier of wireless chips to the smartphone industry, today is announcing its first NFC chip, shaking up an already crowded field of chip vendors.

The Google Wallet has “several promising aspects,” but must overcome a number of hurdles to reach mass adoption, said U.S.-based research firm Gartner.

The majority of NFC phones will come with embedded secure chips that can store applications, say research analysts–projections that will not come as welcome news to many mobile operators.