NFC and contactless specialist Inside Secure has announced that its MicroRead solution has become the first NFC controller chip design to be certified by the NFC Forum. More
NFC Forum certifies Inside Secure’s NFC controller chip
- Bank of China lets taxi drivers accept central bank digital currency payments on NFC mobile phones
- Juniper forecasts 25% increase in POS terminal transaction values by 2028
- STMicroelectronics launches NFC tag chip with elliptic curve cryptography
- NFC Forum survey finds majority of consumers now prefer making payments with their mobile phone
- Hello, NFCW readers!
New Zealand NFC pilot partners report 100% positive consumer feedback
All the participants in a small four month mobile payments trial conducted by BNZ, Vodafone, Visa and Paymark in Auckland and Wellington said they were likely to recommend the service to friends and 14% said they would be willing to pay a small fee for the service. More
HTC to enter payments market?
Phone maker HTC is set to announce a mobile payments partnership with Taiwan’s Cathay United Bank, transportation card issuer EasyCard and MasterCard, according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency... More
Reaction headset pairs with NFC
Nokia’s latest handsfree headset offers “ear detection” to answer calls simply by placing the device in position in the ear. The BH-907 Reaction Bluetooth Headset also allows seamless handover of calls from the earpiece to the phone and can pair via NFC. More
A1 extends cloud-based NFC trial
Austrian mobile network operator A1 has begun the second phase of its Paybox NFC payments trial, with the expansion of the service to 5,000 customers, Der Standard reports... More
Keep up to date: Get NFCW's headlines by email every Wednesday
Signbox lights up NFC outdoors
UK-based Signbox has introduced a new, weatherproof version of its Enlighten NFC smart poster that can be deployed out of doors. More
G&D adds Mifare to NFC SIMs
Giesecke & Devrient has signed a licensing deal with NXP that will see the smart card and SIM maker adding support for Mifare contactless applications to its range of SIM cards. The license covers both Mifare DESFire and Mifare Plus and will enable G&D to provide backward compatibility to Mifare Classic. More
Samsung launches TecTiles NFC tags and programming application
Sets of five TecTiles can be ordered online or bought in store for US$14.99 from all four major US carriers and can be used to program a variety of NFC-initiated functions. “Most of the tag types you make will work on nearly all phones which have NFC hardware,” says Samsung. More
Marvell adds NFC WiFi chip
Chip maker Marvell has launched the Avastar 88W889, the first chip to include support for both 802.11ac WiFi and NFC... More
Ericsson and Aconite join on NFC
Ericsson IPX and Aconite have announced they are now working together to provide banks and other secure service providers with a turnkey NFC application delivery and management solution... More
Leaked Sprint slides reveal NFC wallet designs
The slides suggest the US carrier, which has previously chosen to avoid Isis and partner with Google for NFC, is preparing to launch its own “Sprint Touch” mobile wallet service. More
Apple shows off Passbook mobile wallet
Video coverage of the launch of Apple’s first mobile wallet app shows how it will enable developers to build mobile barcode-based ticketing, stored value, loyalty card and coupon apps for today’s iPhones — and hints at how these apps could migrate to NFC in the future. More
Keep up to date: Get NFCW's headlines by email every Wednesday
Apple debuts barcode-based Passbook mobile wallet
Apple’s forthcoming iOS 6 is to include a new app billed as “the simplest way to get all your passes in one place.” More
Identive cuts non-NFC costs
Identive Group is to cut its global workforce by 11% as part of a cost reduction plan designed to save US$4m to $5m this year... More
Kista Science City to host NFC access control pilot
Staff, researchers and students are to pilot test a system that allows keys to doors, meeting rooms and video conferencing facilities to be sent over the air to participants’ NFC phones. More
Canadian NFC phones forecast
By 2016 almost 80% of the smartphones in Canada will be NFC-enabled, “providing a solid foundation for the uptake of mobile contactless payments”, according to Canadian Payments Forecast — 2012, a new report from TSI... More
Berg: 86% of POS terminals in North America will accept NFC payments by 2017
The US will have the world’s highest density of NFC point-of-sale terminals in five years time, the forecasters say, as the global installed base increases from 3.9m today to 43.4m in 2017. More
Jersey Mike’s loyalty launch shows regional differences in consumer acceptance of NFC
More than 200,000 of the sandwich chain’s customers have signed up for a loyalty program that offers both NFC tags and barcode-based ID. In southern California many outlets have seen almost half their customers choose to use the tags while those in other regions are only moving to mobile contactless as they become more familiar with the technology. More
Juniper: NFC payments to exceed US$180bn in 2017
NFC payments will be being made in store by more than one in four mobile phone users in the US and Western Europe in five years time, the forecaster predicts. More
Charity adds emotion to missing person posters with NFC
A poster campaign for British charity Missing People uses NFC tags to enable users to listen to a recording of a phone call made to the charity in order to “create an immediate emotional response to the advertisement and help the charity demonstrate what it’s like for those who don’t know how to make that first call.” More