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Near Field Communication and all contactless technology

NXP Semiconductors said it had shipped 100 million NFC chips as of last month and confirmed it is supplying chips to eight of the top 10 smartphone makers.

Gemalto has acquired the mobile-payment platform of big Swedish telecoms equipment maker Ericsson, which will deepen Gemalto’s already strong connections to mobile operators offering payment and other mobile-commerce services.

Chicago transit officials unveiled their planned open-loop fare-collection system, called Ventra, with plans to enable riders to tap to pay fares with contactless credit and debit cards, as well as reloadable MasterCard-branded prepaid cards.

Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest retail bank, plans what appears to be a small commercial launch of NFC payment around the end of the year with an unnamed Italian mobile operator, as well as mobile virtual network operator Nòverca.

France’s No. 2 mobile operator SFR is the latest telco with plans to get into the payments market, today announcing it would roll out a contactless co-branded prepaid card with the help of MasterCard Worldwide, with the intention of expanding the service to NFC phones.

NICE, France – A planning chief for Samsung Electronics’ mobile business said consumer awareness of NFC remains a major problem, even in such markets as South Korea, where tens of millions of NFC-enabled phones are already in the pockets of consumers.

NICE, France – All handset makers planning to introduce Windows Phone 8 devices are expected to support NFC, said John Skovron, group program manager, Windows Phone engineering.

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.

Apple, as expected, again passed on NFC technology for its new iPhone, with the tech giant offering few surprises–or significantly new features–today in unveiling the new version of its iconic smartphone.

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.

Motorola Mobility has launched three NFC-enabled Android phones, as part of its Droid Razr family, all exclusively available on U.S. mobile operator Verizon Wireless.

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