NFC TimesThe premier source for news, analysis and commentary on
Near Field Communication and all contactless technology

NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – Shipments of NFC secure elements almost certainly fell in 2016, based on recent figures released by vendor association Eurosmart, though the group is again declining to release specific shipment figures for NFC cards and embedded chips, instead combining the NFC unit shipments with those for machine-to-machine modules.

NFC Times Exclusive – NFC secure element shipments for 2016 will be lower than earlier forecasts by card and chip vendor trade association Eurosmart, although the group is not saying by how much.

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – Inside Secure, once a supplier of NFC controllers, is also exiting the market for NFC embedded secure elements, a product for which it never gained any traction. But the France-based vendor says it will continue to supply security for HCE payments apps.

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – The decision by major Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi to include embedded secure elements in its new flagship, the Mi 5, may signal that other Chinese OEMs will also back the technology for their devices, but those embedded chips would mainly be targeted at transit ticketing applications, not payment like Apple Pay.

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – NXP Semiconductors will take another crack at rolling out its “loader service,” which seeks to make it easier for service providers to load payment and other applications on the chip maker’s embedded secure elements by managing keys on the chip.

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – Smart card vendor association Eurosmart has confirmed its estimate that vendors shipped 350 million NFC secure elements last year, up 30% from the year before, fueled by embedded chips in Apple’s iPhones and what is probably the last significant growth spurt in NFC SIM card shipments. It predicts shipments of 550 million secure elements in 2015, up 57% from 2014, though revised downward from an earlier projection.

NFC Times Exclusive –  Besides payments, Samsung is targeting nonpayment applications, and is seeing “growing interest” in its embedded chips, Samsung Pay director Victor Kim told NFC Times.

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – One of Australia’s largest banks, Commonwealth Bank, is launching NFC payments from its mobile-banking app using host-card emulation, having earlier tried embedded secure elements, contactless stickers and iPhone attachments.

BARCELONA, Spain – NFC Times Exclusive (UPDATED): The Galaxy S6 will carry an embedded secure element, mainly to enable nonpayment applications, while supporting NFC payments with host-card emulation and storing payment tokens in a secure area on the processor, an ARM-based TrustZone, a representative of Samsung told NFC Times. The embedded secure element also could be used to store tokens outside of the U.S. 

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – Dutch bank Rabobank has launched an NFC-enabled mobile wallet, storing a debit application on embedded secure elements in two older Samsung Android devices, which the bank claims is the first NFC mobile payments launch in the country.