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

NFC Times Exclusive – The planned launch of NFC transit ticketing in Japan next month with Apple Pay shined the spotlight on the emergence of closed-loop NFC transit ticketing–which has been seen as a prime application for NFC phones but one that has disappointed NFC backers for years.

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – Credible reports say that Chinese smartphone manufacturer ZTE plans to join the “OEM Pay” club, and that the company has signed an agreement with payments network China UnionPay to deploy an NFC-enabled mobile payments service in China.

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – At least one more of China’s big four banks, and perhaps two, have reportedly introduced mobile payments with host card emulation, following Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, which launched HCE-based service in May.

Samsung Electronics reportedly says it has an agreement with payment network China UnionPay that would enable embedded chips in more than 3 million of its devices in China with China UnionPay’s contactless-payments service, though no banks have yet been mentioned as issuers.

NFC Times Exclusive: Apple’s scheduled announcement Tuesday of its next iPhone is expected to make it the last and also the most prominent of the major smartphone makers to adopt NFC.

Payment network China UnionPay and China-based handset maker ZTE have disclosed an agreement to enable contactless payment on embedded chips in two of ZTE’s latest high-end Android phones.

China Mobile today officially unveiled its plans for introducing NFC SIM cards and a mobile wallet, which it intends to launch early next year, to enable retail payment, transit ticketing and other applications.

China Mobile reportedly plans to sell 10 million 3G NFC phones next year and to sign up 3 million users, according to a presentation by the telco’s vice general manager for e-commerce Wednesday at the NFC & Mobile Money Summit.

Inside Secure is confident it will be able to announce a design win for an Android NFC phone before the end of the year, according to Rémy de Tonnac, CEO of the struggling No. 2 NFC chip maker.

Turkey’s largest operator, Turkcell, has introduced its third self-branded NFC phone, a model made by Chinese supplier ZTE, and for the first time is including its own NFC tag in the box.