Blaze Mobile is selling US patent number 8,630,905, an NFC payments patent entitled “Single Tap Transactions using a Secure Element” that dates back to 2007... More
Blaze seeks buyer for early NFC patent
The Market
Royal Canadian Mint puts Mintchip digital currency up for sale
The Royal Canadian Mint is halting development of its MintChip digital currency and is now looking to sell the business... More
Intel and Inside Secure agree US$19.2m NFC technology deal
Intel is to acquire Inside Secure‘s next generation NFC modem technology in a US$19.2m deal that will also see the existing NFC licensing agreement between the two companies being converted into “a broad and fully paid up license” and a number of Inside Secure employees moving to work for Intel... More
NFC Forum issues statement on host card emulation
The NFC Forum has issued a statement outlining its position on host card emulation (HCE)... More
NFC Forum adds members
Xerox and Thinfilm have joined the NFC Forum as principal members... More
New EMV framework to support NFC, QR, Bluetooth LE and more
A new tokenization framework being developed by EMVCo for the world’s major payments networks will enable EMV transactions to be made on a mobile phone using the widest possible range of “last inch” technologies— and the first draft of the new specification will be available in just a few weeks, Christina Hulka, chair of the board of managers at EMVCo, has told The Mobile Wallet Report... More
Reader offer: Save 15% on tickets to the NFCP Global Summit 2014
The NFCP Global Summit is returning to London in June with a show-stopping line up of speakers — and NFC World readers can save 15% on the usual ticket price... More
KDDI, SK Planet, Chunghwa Telecom and HKT form Asia NFC Alliance
Japanese carrier KDDI, Korea’s SK Planet, Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom and Hong Kong Telecommunications (HKT) are to work together to spread adoption of NFC services in Asia, using a shared NFC tag specification, brand mark and platform... More
Visa unveils host card emulation specification for NFC payments
Visa has introduced a new standard that uses host card emulation (HCE) to enable financial institutions to securely host Visa accounts in the cloud... More
MasterCard backs host card emulation for NFC payments
MasterCard is to publish a new specification during the first half of 2014 that uses host card emulation (HCE) for NFC mobile payments — avoiding the need to have access to a secure element on a customer’s mobile phone — and is already testing the technology with Spain’s Banco Sabadell and Capital One in the US... More
NFC to account for 30% of mobile tickets
More than 34 billion tickets will be delivered to mobile devices over the next five years, according to a new ABI Research forecast, with QR codes making up 48% of the total and NFC accounting for 30%... More
2014 “will be the year of NFC” says new AFSCM president
Three French banks will launch national NFC services in partnership with carriers this year, the new president of the association responsible for bringing NFC to market in France has told NFC World — but transforming consumers into active and frequent users will be critical to success. More
Two in three phones to come with NFC in 2018
NFC will be included in 64% of the mobile phones shipped in 2018, up from 18.2% in 2013, according to a new forecast from IHS Technology... More
GSMA updates NFC Handset Test Book
The GSMA has published version 2.0 of its NFC Handset Test Book (PDF), a collection of test cases to be used for checking the NFC functionality in mobile devices... More
NXP reports slowdown in NFC revenue growth
NXP Semiconductors has reported a slowdown in revenue growth for its NFC business in 2013 but says it is optimistic that business will pick up again during the second half of this year... More
1.6bn NFC handsets by 2018
The global market for NFC handsets is projected to reach 1.6bn units by 2018, according to a new research report from Global Industry Analysts, “driven by growing penetration of mobile phones, continued rise in demand and production of smartphones, rising penetration of NFC in consumer devices, and chip level technology developments.”... More
GlobalPlatform grows NFC specs
Secure element standards organisation GlobalPlatform has published a new framework for secure NFC service deployment, designed to reduce both time to market and overall deployment costs... More
ABI: Smartphones accounted for 80% of NFC devices shipped in 2013
Smartphones accounted for four out of five NFC devices shipped in 2013 but that market share will drop to under 60% in 2017 as NFC becomes widely adopted in computing products, peripherals, speakers, digital cameras, printers, domestic appliances and automotive products, ABI Research reports... More
French firm sues HTC and LG for NFC patent infringement
Intellectual property commercialisation firm France Brevets has filed patent infringement lawsuits against phone makers HTC and LG in the US and Germany, for using two NFC patents that were granted to Inside Secure in 2004 and 2010... More
Hong Kong banks agree NFC payment standards
The Hong Kong Association of Banks (HKAB) has issued Best Practice for NFC Mobile Payment in Hong Kong, a set of common standards and best practices that aims to help establish an interoperable, as well as safe and effective, NFC mobile payment infrastructure... More