The chip maker has followed Samsung in announcing it will work with FeliCa Networks to develop solutions that allow phones to work with both NFC and Japan’s existing Osaifu-Keitai mobile wallet service.
NXP has signed an NFC chip deal with FeliCa Networks, the joint venture between Sony and NTT Docomo which operates Japan’s Osaifu-Keitai mobile wallet service.
The deal will see NXP and FeliCa Networks working together to expand the functionality of NXP’s NFC controllers to include support for FeliCa technology, enabling phones to be developed that will work with both Japan’s existing installed based of merchant terminals and ticketing equipment and NFC tags and terminals.
Like the Samsung chips announced last week, the first NXP chips supporting both technologies will be available in 2013. Sony also has its own NFC controller, announced in October 2011, that will enable phones to support both NFC and Osaifu-Keitai.
“Working with NXP is essential for realizing fully worldwide NFC-enabled phones,” says Hirotaka Sugiyama, president of FeliCa Networks. “We are proud to ease the development of completely global NFC-enabled mobile devices for manufacturers and a higher level of convenience for consumers, not only in Japan but also around the world, by this collaboration with NXP.”
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