AfterDawn: News

Nokia: All smartphones to feature NFC from 2011

Nokia has revealed that all smartphones it releases from 2011 on will feature near-field communication (NFC) technology, a welcomed announced as NFC-backers feared Nokia was backing off on its long-term support plans for NFC. Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia's executive VP for markets, made today's announcement at the Mobey Forum's 10th anniversary meeting in Helsinki.

Vanjoki was unable to give specific details about the new smartphone models, but delegates were informed that information would be made available "in due course." Vanjoki said that the handsets will support "all open business models," suggesting that they will support both the Single Wire Protocol (SWP) and other secure element formats such as MicroSD cards, or possibly an embedded security element.



Using NFC technology, users can avail of a proximity payment system to carry out transactions, such as paying for public transport. Besides having the NFC to facilitate wireless communications, the handset would also need a lot of various elements to be stored safely that control the system securely. Operators have lobbied for the SWP standard which would store all of this important data in the SIM and facilitate such features.

However, Nokia has never believed in locking users to an operator, which has hurt its business in the United States, and would seemingly instead opt for keeping security and other sensitive information in the handset to that users aren't locked by proxy to an operator because of NFC features.

Written by: James Delahunty @ 17 Jun 2010 12:01

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• 3 comments

• Josipher

  what good is this if the technology isnt implemented in public transport systems as well?
  

  mods go home

  17.6.2010 17:00 #1

• KillerBug

  This is downright scary; I don't want this in my phone! I don't care if it is on the sim or in protected storage. If it can be used, it can be hacked.
  
  Then again, my city's idea of public transport is one bus that circles the city once a month.

  17.6.2010 23:58 #2

• Dela

  Originally posted by Josipher: what good is this if the technology isnt implemented in public transport systems as well? The main reason really is that more people in the world have a mobile phone than people with a bank account, particularly in developing countries. Nokia and the other major phone manufacturers see an opportunity there for people to be able to make payments etc. through their mobile phones.
  
  Of course, as you pointed out, you can have the phone but its no good if nothing else supports it. However, its early days, but even at that there are still many many trials and common uses of the technology already. It's not all about the ability to make transactions using your phone either, there's other possibilities. One already in use is "smart posters", where you could, for example, hold your phone within a few feet of a movie poster and download a trailer for the movie, not from over the network, but from the poster itself. You could conceivably do this with existing technology like bluetooth too but there are costs and other things involved.
  
  NFC is also going to be used at all major retail stores soon. Say you have a basket full of items you just picked up in Wal-Mart. You go up to the check out and simply place the basket down and with cheap RFID chips in the packaging of all your products, it immediately recognizes everything in your basket so you can pay up and move along quickly. And that's not future tech, that's done now. NFC actually has fueled many conspiracy theories about people being tracked from satellites or being chipped at birth to be tracked... but its not called "near field communication" for no reason, its a very very short field of communication.
  
  So even if it isn't just mobile phones, NFC is coming up big time.

  18.6.2010 00:37 #3