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Handset maker HTC continued the flow of announcements of high-end handsets supporting Android and Windows Phone 8, with the unveiling last week of its Windows-based 8X.

U.S.-based Vivotech is moving closer to liquidation, with the NFC company confirming that it recently entered into an assignment for the benefit of creditors agreement, a process by which the company’s assets would be sold to pay creditors.

Nokia today introduced its first two devices running Windows Phone 8 and, as expected, both support NFC.

Samsung Electronics announced the world’s first Windows Phone 8 smartphone, the Ativ S, which supports NFC.

Even as the NFC Forum attempts to broaden the reach of its NFC touchpoint symbol, known as the N-Mark, rival marks are surfacing, threatening to present consumers with a fragmented array of NFC icons as the technology rolls out.

Brazilian online payments company PagSeguro along with Nokia has launched an NFC peer-to-peer payment service enabling users to pay small merchants and transfer money to friends using Nokia smartphones.

MONACO – Inside Secure is expected to announce as early as Friday that Nokia has selected it as NFC chip supplier for the handset maker’s first NFC-enabled Windows Phone, to be introduced in the third quarter.

MONACO – Nokia, in a surprise move, announced it will introduce its first NFC-enabled Windows Phone device in the third quarter, offering an NFC version of its low-cost Lumia 610.

The head of NFC at Nokia, Jeremy Belostock, has left the handset maker, the latest departure from Nokia’s NFC staff

Reports are citing comments from Microsoft vice president and Windows Phone manager Joe Belfiore as emphasizing an NFC-based “wallet experience” for the software giant’s planned Windows Phone 8 platform.