Samsung Galaxy S II will come with NFC — but only in some markets

The decision on whether or not the devices shipped into a particular country will be equipped with NFC will depend on “market requirement”, says Samsung.

Samsung Galaxy S II
GALAXY S II: Packin' NFC — in some countries

Samsung has officially unveiled the next generation of its best selling Galaxy smartphone at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The good news is that the Samsung Galaxy S II will be available with built-in near field communication functionality, as expected, and that the functionality will include mobile payment capabilities. The bad news, however, is that there will be at least two versions of the Galaxy S II — and not all will come with NFC. The decision on whether or not the devices shipped into a particular country will be equipped with NFC or not will depend on “market requirement”, says Samsung.

The Galaxy S II, like the Google Nexus S which was also built by Samsung, runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread and features a dual core processor, super amoled display and an 8.49mm thin body.

Of particular interest to anyone tracking NFC business models, the Galaxy S II is being launched with four ‘hubs’ — Social Hub Premium, Readers Hub, Game Hub and Music Hub. There is no mention of an ‘NFC Hub’ or ‘Wallet Hub’ in the official announcement but if, like the Google Nexus S, the Galaxy S II includes an embedded secure element, it is likely that we will see the addition of something along those lines in the near future.

Full technical specifications, images and videos are available on a dedicated Galaxy S II website.

NFC World’s Mike Clark will be at the Mobile World Congress all this week. If you are launching a new NFC product at the show or would like to see a copy of our NFC Business Models report, please send Mike an email.

Next: Visit the NFCW Expo to find new suppliers and solutions