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Near Field Communication and all contactless technology

NFC Times Exclusive: Facebook is unlikely to become a real payments player or use NFC or other technologies to try to make the jump to the physical point of sale anytime soon, panelists at a recent NFC conference agreed.

Taiwan-based MediaTek, a major supplier of processor chips for smartphones, has announced its first NFC chip, which it says could support three secure elements at one time.

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.

U.S.-based Qualcomm, the world’s largest supplier of processor chips to smartphone makers, has entered the NFC market–a move that could substantially expand the availability of NFC-enabled smartphones.

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.

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.