NFC news in brief

A survey carried out by market researcher YouGov in Germany has revealed that, while 54% of the population has heard of NFC, only one in six (16%) can see themselves using NFC and contactless payments in the future. Most cited security concerns, with 52% worrying about NFC technology being potentially insecure. Germans from 30-39 years old are the most willing to use NFC mobile payments.

Movie-goers at a multiplex in Mumbai, India can now book tickets, leave feedback and like the Cinemax theatre chain on Facebook after tapping smart posters or NFC enabled standees in the cinema foyer. The "Box office now in your pocket" campaign has been tried by more than 200 people over a six week period, says Indian NFC platform provider JusTap, with 35% choosing to download the Cinemax mobile app.

Nokia has introduced a cloud-based file sharing app with NFC features for its Windows 8 phones. The YouSendIt app runs on top of the business-grade file sharing service and is only available for Nokia Lumia devices running WP8.

Flomio's bid to crowdfund the production of its FloJack NFC add-on for iOS devices is just over US$10,000 away from its $80,000 target with five days to run. The company has also revealed plans for an NFC-enabled iPhone 4 sleeve called "FloCase" and added extra reward levels, including one aimed specifically at student developers.

The release of Android 4.2 sees support for Kovio's NFC Barcode printed tags added to the operating system. NFC Barcodes use silicon ink and thin film technology and hold the promise of ultra-low-cost tags that can be directly printed onto product labels, coupons and packaging.

Indian video games retailer Game4u has installed smart posters in its stores that let NFC phone users tap their handset to "like" the retailer on Facebook. Game4u's NFC platform is provided by Mumbai-based JusTap!

Transportation and smart card technology specialist Ecebs has been acquired by Bell ID. Ecebs' portfolio includes a number of front-end technologies that Bell ID expects to be able to use to "significantly enhance its offering to the growing market for smart ticketing/payment using mobile devices".

Car maker Audi has signed a strategic partnership deal with NXP that will see the two companies working on eight areas of automotive innovation, including NFC, Car-to-X communications, telematics and high-voltage controls for electric vehicles.

Atos Worldline has launched Yoximo, a portable POS terminal with a contactless reader integrated into its colour screen. The terminal complies with the PCI 3 and SRED standards, and features a revolving PIN privacy shield.

Japanese payment brand JCB has begun a one month trial of a new JCB Mobile Wallet platform in Tokyo's Omotesando shopping district and says it will launch the product commercially in 2013. The JCB Mobile Wallet handles payments, points programs, discounts and other special offers and is based on a platform developed by Dai Nippon Printing.

Ten device manufacturers are now using Infineon's Digital Contactless Bridge (DCLB) interface to enable a fast and secure connection between an embedded secure element and an NFC modem, the chip maker reports. Licensees include Texas Instruments, Inside Secure, MicroPross, MtekVision, Crocus Technology and Keolabs.

The developers behind Project Ingeborg, which can provide visitors to a town or city with the ability to download books, works of art and other information relevant to particular locations via NFC tags and QR codes, have made the system available as a plugin for the popular WordPress content management platform. The Pingeb.org plugin is based on a service tested earlier this year in the Austrian town of Klagenfurt.

Developer Andreas Jakl has introduced NFC Interactor, an NFC tag reading and writing application for Windows Phone 8 handsets. The app is also available for Symbian and MeeGo devices.

RBS Group, which owns the UK's Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest banks, has picked Giesecke and Devrient as the TSM for its TouchPay NFC payments project. G&D is also managing data generation and fulfilment of the iCarte devices used to add NFC functionality to customers' iPhone 4 and 4S handsets.

Close to 100m NFC secure elements will be shipped this year and that number will double in 2013, according to analysis conducted by smart card trade body Eurosmart. 750m contactless cards will also be produced in 2013, up from 600m in 2012.

Contactless card specialist Legic is demonstrating at Cartes a new NFC trusted service management solution aimed at the employee ID market. "Major companies presently spend large sums on temporary company ID cards," says Legic's Oliver Burke. "NFC can reduce this cost to a fraction."

Assa Abloy owned smart card and RFID chip maker AdvanIDe has launched a range of contactless reader modules aimed at the NFC market. The product line includes a plug-and-play option, an OEM board, chipsets and a firmware licensing program for clients developing high volume solutions.

Identive has announced a range of desktop readers that support credentials stored on contact and contactless smart cards as well as NFC phones. "Identive's new Cloud readers provide organizations with a simple, yet powerful way to bridge their current smart card-based IT systems with emerging contactless applications such as NFC," says COO Dr Manfred Mueller.

C-Sam and Dai Nippon Printing (DNP) have expanded availability of their joint NFC mobile wallet solution, available in Japan since July, to more than 30 countries across the Asia-Pacific region. The solution combines DNP's NFC TSM technology with C-Sam's Mobile Transaction Platform.

Morpho has shipped 500,000 NFC/LTE SIM cards to KT, Korea's second largest mobile network operator. KT expects that 20m Korean consumers will be equipped with an NFC phone by the end of this year.