NFC takes two steps forward — and one step back

OPINION: A host of new NFC products and initiatives were announced at this year’s Mobile World Congress but, it seems, we will have to wait until the end of this year before the first NFC handsets become widely available in the West.

While the Mobile World Congress saw the announcement of a new Sagem Wireless NFC phone and the arrival of Samsung’s new NFC device, it also witnessed the official cancellation of Nokia’s eagerly awaited Single Wire Protocol compliant NFC phone, the 6216 Classic.

Sagem Orga and Telenor, meanwhile, unveiled a new technology that can add NFC functionality to 100% of existing phones and Visa announced it is to run a number of field trials of DeviceFidelity’s microSD solution.

But it was China that continued to take centre stage last week, as China Unicom and the Chinese banks announced plans to go head to head with China Mobile’s RF SIM service. The world’s first Single Wire Protocol-based NFC service is now set to go live in the second quarter of this year, says China Unicom…

Sarah Clark, Editor

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