The prospectus for Inside Secure’s IPO this month shows that the company made US$47m from the sale of NFC chips in 2011, that these were mainly delivered to RIM for use in BlackBerry NFC smartphones and that Inside believes it now has a share of close to 50% of the overall market for NFC chips for mobile phones. More
Chips
Inside wins NFC phone order
Inside Secure has announced its NFC chip technology has been chosen to power “a next-generation smartphone from a leading mobile phone manufacturer.” The new phone is scheduled to be introduced by mid-year, “will run on one of the most widely used mobile operating systems under license” and will use Inside’s MicroRead NFC controller chip and Open NFC protocol stack software... More
Fly and Tianyu pick MStar chip for new NFC phones
The Taiwanese semiconductor supplier’s NFC controller chip is to be used in an Android handset made by Tianyu for the Chinese market and a feature phone designed for B2B applications which is being introduced next month by a UK customer of handset maker Fly. More
Melexis puts NFC in cars
Semiconductor maker Melexis has launched an NFC transceiver chip designed and rated for use in the automotive market... More
Intel signs NFC deal with Inside Secure
“We look forward to working with Inside to develop and bring to market a range of exciting connectivity solutions for mainstream consumer products that incorporate NFC features,” says the head of the semiconductor giant’s Mobile Wireless Group. More
Inside works with CorFire
Inside Secure and CorFire, the US arm of Korean NFC specialist SK C&C, are working together to make sure that the French chip maker’s NFC controllers, secure elements and Open NFC protocol stack are fully interoperable with CorFire’s CorTSM trusted service management platform... More
NXP launches NFC reader chip
NXP has introduced a multi-protocol, NFC-ready contactless transceiver chip that can be used in a wide range of banking, e-government, transport and mobile payment terminals and other devices... More
Intel enters NFC market with MasterCard
The two companies are working together to increase the convenience and security of online purchasing from NFC-enabled Intel Ultrabook devices and future generations of Intel-based PCs. More
Sony enters NFC controller market
The electronics giant’s new NFC controller chip will enable mobile phone makers to manufacture devices that support both international NFC standards and Japan’s existing Osaifu-Keitai mobile wallet service. More
NFC goes green: New ST chips use energy harvesting to replace the need for batteries
The new wireless memory chips harvest the energy generated from NFC and RFID actions to power up small devices so that a battery or other power supply no longer needs to be included. More
NXP inside Galaxy Nexus
NXP has confirmed that its PN65N NFC controller with embedded secure element has been picked for Google’s recently launched Galaxy Nexus phone, along with the company’s open source NFC middleware... More
NXP: Our NFC now designed into 90 devices
NXP technology has been designed into more than ninety unique devices, the chip maker’s CEO told analysts during a conference call for its Q3 earnings — up from sixty devices in July. More
1.2bn NFC chips to ship in 2015
More than 1.2 billion NFC chips will ship annually by 2015, according to a new forecast from In-Stat... More
NFC Forum picks Broadcom for device certification testing
The NFC Forum has chosen to use Broadcom‘s recently announced BCM2079x NFC controller chips to validate its NFC device certification test suite... More
Inside ships 10m NFC chips
Inside Secure has shipped 10 million MicroRead and SecuRead NFC controller chips so far in 2011, and the company’s capacity for NFC chip shipments now exceeds five million units per month... More
New Broadcom chips signal next stage of the mobile wallet wars
The company’s new NFC controller chips allow multiple secure elements to be active on a single phone at the same time, making it possible for consumers to use both a mobile wallet supplied by a mobile network operator and a mobile wallet supplied by a bank, handset maker or operating system supplier. More
NXP debuts NTAG203 tag chip with improved RF sensitivity
NFC pioneer NXP has announced a new chip for NFC tags which offers improved radio sensitivity, meaning that tags can be read over a greater range or that tag antennas can be made smaller... More
SK Telecom launches SIM cards that add NFC to existing phones
The ‘NFC on USIM’ cards support card emulation and tag read/write functions and are expected to cost in the region of US$30-40 each. Peer-to-peer support will be added towards the end of 2011. More
Microsoft picks NXP for NFC in Windows 8
“NXP has a deep understanding of NFC and we are working with them to deliver the right hardware, software and support to bring this technology to our partners, developers, and ultimately the consumer,” says the software giant’s Aidan Marcuss. More
Latest NFC phone news and rumours • 12 Sept 2011
The latest NFC phone rumours and announcements, including: Sony Ericsson’s Nozomi, Samsung’s Omnia W Windows phone, US Samsung Galaxy S II rumours, iPhone 5 anticipation building to fever pitch and Google’s Schmidt hints Android Ice Cream Sandwich could ship in October. More