Near Field Communications World » Apple

Apple patent introduces Products+ for NFC-based product promotions

Sarah Clark — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 07:13:26 +0000

Yet another NFC-related Apple patent application has been published, this time covering the use of an NFC phone to read a tag on a consumer product in order to obtain a benefit provided by the manufacturer or retailer.

The patent application includes a wide range of suggestions for benefits that could be offered, including offers for free merchandise or free music.

Patently Apple has all the details.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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Broadcom to enter NFC market, buys Innovision for $47.5m

Sarah Clark — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 08:47:45 +0000

Semiconductor giant Broadcom Corporation has announced it has agreed to acquire UK-based NFC specialist Innovision Research & Technology in a deal valued at US$47.5m.

Innovision has developed a suite of designs, patents and expertise, known as Gem NFC IP, which enables near field communication technology to be added at low cost to mass-market mobile phones and other devices.

Current generation NFC phones require a separate NFC controller chip to be built into the handset. With Innovision's Gem NFC IP, mobile phone chipset manufacturers can build the technology into their existing 'combo chip' products, already used to add Bluetooth, WiFi, FM radio and GPS to current mobile phones.

The advantage of this approach is that it enables NFC to be added to mass market phones far more cheaply — under US$1 per unit compared to the $5+ cost of a standalone NFC controller. Innovision makes its technology available to semiconductor companies on a licensing basis and several major suppliers to the mobile phone industry have already licensed the firm's technology.

Broadcom specialises in communications and networking semiconductors and had revenues of $4.49bn in 2009. It is a major player in the combo chip market. Clients include Apple, which uses Broadcom's WiFi+Bluetooth combo chip in the iPhone 3GS, iPad and iPod Touch.

The acquisition of Innovision, which is listed on the Alternative Investment Market at the London Stock Exchange, is being made through the company's Broadcom International subsidiary. Terms have been agreed with Innovision's board which see Broadcom making an all-cash offer to acquire all of the issued and to be issued shares of Innovision.

Under the terms of the offer, Innovision shareholders will receive £0.35 ($0.52 approx) per share in cash for each Innovision share held — an 84.2% premium on the closing price of Innovision common stock on 17 June 2010 which, says Broadcom, values the deal at a total of $47.5m (£32m approx) at current exchange rates. Broadcom expects to close the acquisition of Innovision in the third quarter of 2010.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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No NFC in iPhone 4G

Sarah Clark — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 18:59:17 +0000

Apple’s fourth generation iPhone sports a slew of new features but will not have built-in NFC capability.

The company’s chief executive, Steve Jobs, revealed the latest version of the best-selling mobile handset during a keynote speech at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco today, but did not announce that near field communication will be built in to the device.

Apple is widely expected to add NFC technology to its iPhone soon, and is rumoured to have been testing prototype units, but it now looks like native NFC capability will not arrive until at least June 2011, in the device's next annual refresh.

Recently published patent applications reveal that Apple sees NFC as playing an important part in its future business, including roles in everything from concert and airline ticketing and file transfer and data synchronisation to, importantly, a mobile payments, mobile commerce and mobile payments business proposition that is set to see the company turn into a service provider sitting at the centre of the emerging multi-billion dollar world of mobile commerce.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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US Bank to test NFC in Q4 2010

Sarah Clark — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 18:29:28 +0000

US Bank is to run an NFC pilot from the fourth quarter of 2010, Brandon McGee reports from the Mobile Banking & Emerging Applications Summit in Las Vegas.

The pilot will include a Mobile Shopping Concierge service which will include a wide range of enhanced shopping services such as mobile coupons, offers, recipes and shopping lists plus loyalty card, savings summary and grocery store layout functions.

US Bank will be using DeviceFidelity's NFC add-on for its pilot. In February, Visa announced it would be running a series of trials using the MicroSD format device and, last month, a protective sleeve enabling the device to be used with Apple's iPhone was also introduced.

And a survey of delegates attending the event indicates that US Bank won't be the only bank looking to offer NFC services to US consumers in the year ahead. In total, 18% of attendees say they plan to offer NFC services in one form or another in the coming year.

Update: The Mobile Shopping Concierge service and the NFC payments service are components of two separate trials that US Bank is planning, a bank spokesperson has told NFC World. The two trials form part of a wide range of mobile banking initiatives that the bank has lined up for 2010, Bank Technology News reports:

On the agenda for the rest of 2010 are mobile P2P payments, facilitated by a deal with CashEdge; mobile RDC in partnership with Firethorn; a mobile rewards program called FlexPerks mobile that will send offers to consumers via their mobile device; MicroSD based payments, and a mobile shopping concierge that will used location-based information to send specific coupons to a customer based on where the customer is in a specific retail store.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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Turkey, France and China move towards NFC adoption

Sarah Clark — Tue, 18 May 2010 13:00:37 +0000

OPINION: News from Turkey, France and China this week indicates that the NFC market is now beginning to gather pace around the world, as both mobile network operators and banks in more and more countries commit to working together to make near field communication based services a reality.

In Turkey, commercial NFC services are now set to begin as soon as July. In France, the long-awaited pre-commercial pilot in Nice will begin this week, amid talk of plans to expand to Paris, Caen and Strasbourg in the near future. And, in China, both China Telecom and China Unicom have joined with China UnionPay to develop an open platform for the delivery of NFC and mobile payments services across the country.

Coupled with last month's news that a range of NFC-enabled Android phones will arrive on the market from the end of this year and Apple's work on NFC-based iPhone services, it's clear that NFC is now moving rapidly towards widespread market adoption.

Sarah Clark, Editor

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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DeviceFidelity confirms availability of Visa-enabled iPhone device

Sarah Clark — Mon, 17 May 2010 17:11:48 +0000

The NFC-on-MicroSD supplier has announced that a protective case designed to add near field communication functionality to the iPhone is now available.

GOT IT COVERED: DeviceFidelity's protective case adds NFC to any iPhone via the dock port and the company's In2Pay microSD based NFC solution

DeviceFidelity has confirmed that, as we reported on 4 May, its In2Pay NFC MicroSD solution is now available for the iPhone.

The solution, which has been certified by Apple, was developed in collaboration with Visa and uses a protective case which is designed to stay permanently attached to the iPhone and which provides a micro USB slot for users to sync and charge their devices. Users then simply insert a standard In2Pay MicroSD card into the case and can then use their iPhone to make payments at merchants equipped to accept contactless payments. Trials are scheduled to start during the second quarter of 2010.

"The more than 200,000 apps on the App Store are an integral part of iPhone users' lives," says Amitaabh Malhotra, COO of DeviceFidelity. "With our In2Pay solution, we want to give both iPhone users and app developers the power to do even more, by putting the convenience of interactive secure mobile transactions, right at their fingertips, anywhere they are."

"Visa is working to bring the security and convenience of digital currency to mobile users around the world," adds Dave Wentker, head of mobile contactless payments at Visa. "Our collaboration with DeviceFidelity can extend the reach of Visa mobile payments to millions of iPhone users."

Visa announced in February that it would be running a number of field trials using DeviceFidelity's MicroSD technology from the second quarter of this year.

HOW IT WORKS: This video shows how DeviceFidelity's NFC-bearing microSD card is inserted into the two-part protective case

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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Video footage of Visa’s NFC iPhone device now available

Sarah Clark — Thu, 06 May 2010 13:17:01 +0000

The video footage described in the press release NFC World spotted on Tuesday, announcing that Visa is to test an NFC-enabled protective case for the iPhone, is now live on the PR Newswire website.

The footage shows that the NFC add-on, developed by DeviceFidelity, is more than just a stand-alone iPhone protective case. In fact, it appears to connect to the iPhone via the Apple 30-pin dock connector on the bottom of the phone.

We'll have more details as soon as possible. In the meantime, readers can view the videos on PR Newswire's website.

Update at 16:12 Oh dear! Now the video has also been taken down.

Here's what we gleaned from watching the footage: The video shows a two-part casing for the iPhone, into which a DeviceFidelity NFC microSD card is inserted. This casing then fits onto the iPhone, plugging into the device's dock connector. The product looks as neat and discreet as a protective shell can be, but it is unclear if the case needs to be removed to charge the iPhone. The video goes on to show a transaction being made, with the user selecting a payment application on the iPhone's screen and then waving the device over a terminal to pay.

• You can also find more details on Apple's own plans for NFC, iTunes and the iPhone here.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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Breaking: Visa to bring NFC mobile payments to the iPhone

Sarah Clark — Tue, 04 May 2010 22:06:30 +0000

A joint press release from Visa and DeviceFidelity has appeared on the MarketWatch website which reveals that the two companies have developed a protective case for the iPhone that will enable users "to make payments by simply waving their iPhone in front of a contactless payment terminal."

According to the announcement, the product has been certified by Apple and works with both iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G devices. In February, Visa announced it would be running a series of NFC payments trials using DeviceFidelity's MicroSD format NFC device. The lack of a MicroSD slot in the iPhone meant that iPhone users would have been excluded from participating in these tests, however — until now. "Market trials of the payment-enabled iPhone are scheduled to start this summer," the press release concludes.

The announcement includes a link to video content featuring the device in action and interviews with Dave Wentker, head of mobile contactless payments at Visa, and Amitaabh Malhotra, COO of DeviceFidelity. At the moment, however, the link is not live and, unusually, the press release is not available on either Visa's or DeviceFidelity's website and does not seem to be available from any other news sources.

We'll have more details as soon as possible. In the meantime, here is the full text of the press release:

Visa Inc. and DeviceFidelity, Inc. are working to allow Apple iPhone(TM) users to make payments by simply waving their iPhone in front of a contactless payment terminal. The new technology, developed by DeviceFidelity and certified by Apple, combines a protective iPhone case with a secure memory card that hosts Visa's contactless payment application, called Visa payWave. The technology will work for both iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G devices.
iPhone users will be able to make Visa mobile payments in retail stores, at fast food restaurants, in taxis, during sporting events (such as at baseball games), and also make purchases at vending machines that have contactless payment terminals. Thousands of merchants throughout the U.S. have already upgraded their payment terminals to allow consumers to make Visa mobile payments. The technology will also work with a majority of smart phones that have a slot for a memory card. By simply inserting the card into the memory slot on their phone, mobile users can transform their existing mobile phones into a Visa payment device. Visa has already rolled out a similar technology in Malaysia and Japan, where consumers can make mobile payments in stores and restaurants.
The mobile payment application can be password protected and utilizes advanced security technology to uniquely identify each contactless transaction. In addition, all Visa mobile payments are backed by Visa's global processing network and analyzed for potential fraud in real-time. If a mobile device is lost or stolen, account holders should contact their issuer, as they would if their card was lost or stolen. The issuer can immediately deactivate the account. Market trials of the payment-enabled iPhone are scheduled to start this summer.

Update: Video footage of the device in action has appeared on the web, then vanished again soon afterwards. Read more details and a description of the device here.

• You can also find more details on Apple's own plans for NFC, iTunes and the iPhone here.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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Facebook tests RFID-based location services — NFC on the way?

Sarah Clark — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 18:48:32 +0000

The All Facebook blog reports that Facebook is issuing RFID tags to all the delegates attending its f8 developer conference:

All attendees of the f8 developer conference are receiving special RFID tags that enable them to check-in to various locations throughout the conference venue. The service lets you tag yourself in photos, become a fan of various Facebook Pages, and share activity to your Facebook profile.

"One can imagine that RFID would be extremely useful for enabling users to check in to various locations, however in its current form, there’s little disclosure on what each check in results in," the blog continues. "The process is clearly an early stage test to provide some entertainment value for attendees of the f8 event. It’s definitely interesting though and it’s a sign that we may see other location announcements in the coming hours."

Could Facebook have plans to provide RFID cards to its 400 million users around the world? While that is highly unlikely, enabling users to check in to locations using their NFC phone does provide Facebook with a clear business model. Like Apple, and Google too, it has the potential to build a serious business around using near field communication to provide location-based mobile marketing services and mobile coupons to businesses and brands around the world...

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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Apple plans NFC-based airline ticketing plus unmanned airport check-in and security processes

Sarah Clark — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 15:03:19 +0000

The latest in a host of near field communication-related patent applications from Apple covers the use of an NFC-enabled iPhone for buying an airline ticket and for checking in baggage.

As well as a manned check-in desk, the patent application also covers an unmanned, automated airport ticketing and baggage counter kiosk and introduces the concept of an automated security checking process where users of the iTravel app could process themselves through the security clearance system and check themselves in at the boarding gate.

Patently Apple has all the details...

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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