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.

MStar has won two contracts for its NFC controller chip, from Chinese handset maker Tianyu and Fly, a leading player in the Russian and eastern European handset markets.

Tianyu has built MStar’s chip into an Android phone carrying its K-Touch brand name. The phone supports China UnionPay’s NFC specification, which is based on the use of a microSD card as the secure element on a phone that includes a built-in NFC antenna and controller chip.

The new device from Fly is a feature phone that has been developed on an ODM (original design manufacturing) basis for a UK customer which plans to offer the phone to business customers for time and attendance and other B2B applications from next month. Additional customers in northern Europe are expected to be added during the second quarter of 2012.

“We believe this commercial-focused smartphone-like feature phone integrating NFC technologies will play a critical role for enterprises to improve managerial efficiency,” says Suresh Radhakrishnan, Fly’s group CEO . “Moreover, we also expect handset solutions with NFC-related applications integrated will be extensively deployed in various mobile payment consumption markets.”

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