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Near Field Communication and all contactless technology

BARCELONA – As expected, Samsung Electronics has introduced an NFC-capable follow-up to its popular Galaxy S Android smartphone, the Galaxy S II, which it unveiled at a pre-opening event at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

France-based transaction processor Atos Worldline announced today that it has hired Cassis International to enable it to offer trusted service management to its customers in Europe.

The major Japanese and South Korean mobile operators in separate announcements today revealed details for planned cross-border NFC services­–signaling the move by the telcos away from domestic contactless-mobile technology to standard NFC.

NFC chip supplier Inside Secure is again charging that Google’s latest Android operating system, known as Gingerbread, favors chips from rival NXP Semiconductors and continues to pitch its own "Open NFC" software as an alternative.

Telefónica O2 UK plans to launch a number of mobile-wallet services in the second half of this year, as it moves in on banks to enable consumers to shop and pay with their mobile phones.

"Something big is coming." So says–or so hopes–Samsung Electronics. (Korea JoongAng Daily)

While NFC holds great promise, and 2011 is shaping up as a turning point for the technology, the industry is focusing too much on payment as the major application for expected NFC rollouts.

Visa Europe has announced a precommercial launch in Turkey and an internal trial in the United Kingdom of another iPhone attachment, the iCarte, which it hopes to introduce to enable consumers to tap their iPhones to pay where Visa payWave is accepted.

McDonald’s has announced it will accept contactless payment at its 1,200 restaurants throughout the United Kingdom, one of the first tier-one merchants to embrace the technology in the country.

Although it is trailing far behind rival Visa in terms of numbers of contactless cards carrying its brand in the United Kingdom, MasterCard Worldwide has calculated that the contactless game is just beginning in Britain and is willing to spend millions to boost its brand.

More reports and rumors are surfacing of new NFC-enabled smartphones headed to market, including a successor to the popular Android-based Galaxy S from Samsung.

Shares in Research In Motion jumped as much as 4% to near an eight-month high on Thursday morning after it reached a deal with India that appeared to protect its secure corporate email service. (Reuters Canada)