A new report done by IDTechEx compares and contrasts Near Field Communication, and particularly RFID enabled mobile phones, with contactless smart cards and tickets. It emphasizes how they are forms of RFID with advantages and disadvantages and different development paths.

The researchers came to the conclusion that there will continue to be rapid growth in sales for at least ten years. This follows 800 million Chinese acquiring contactless national ID cards in four years and 47 million Japanese adopting NFC-compatible phones in three years. These were two of the fastest rollouts of electronic products in human history, the report states.

NXP Semiconductors is looking at licensing its Mifare contactless chip card technology to other semiconductor companies for use in SIM cards and NFC applications such as ticketing, payment and access management. “We are preparing a technology licensing program. This will take some time to evolve as it involves both the Mifare hardware and operating system and the crucial over the air management protocols and interfaces with Mifare4Mobile,” Heikki Huomo, vice president and general manager for the NFC business at NXP, told EE times Europe.

NXP and Siemens Mobility have reached an agreement to collaborate on development of NXP’s new Automotive Telematics On Board (ATOP) into a ‘single chip on-board unit’ system based on GPS and GSM. Once it is done with development and ready for the market, it is intended for use in private vehicles. ATOP can be used simply and cost-effectively as it exploits existing GPS/GSM mobile networks.

A benefit of ATOP is that it is not necessary to install an infrastructure, such as toll stations for roads, because drivers can install the on-board unit in just a few minutes, and the system will then act as a secure and easy toll collection method.

2010 is the date many seem to target as when near field communication will begin to take off. Until then, chipmakers may not see a lot of demand for the new microprocessors, according to EETimes.com

There are also issues with software and administrative matters surrounding NFC, the report states. There need to be more card reader subsystems, integrations tools and application software. There also needs to be software that supports backend-billing services.

EETimes.com will release a full report in May. A preliminary report is available here.

The NFC Forum, a Wakefield, Mass.-based non-profit advocating the use of near field communication trechnology, announced the winners of its Touching the Future: NFC Forum Global Competition.

In the competition, developers in a commercial track vied for the honor of having their solutions named “The Best NFC Service of the Year 2008,” while a Research Track recognized “The Most Innovative NFC Research Project of the Year 2008.”

The first-place winner in the Commercial Track is VingCard Elsafe of Norway for its “Signature RFID by VingCard - Electronic Lock for Hotels.” This product enables hotel guests with NFC-enabled phones to bypass the check-in process and unlock their hotel rooms using the phones.

UK-based Juniper Research released a study that predicts retailers will have issued almost 3 billion mobile coupons to customers by 2011. The study also predicts that mobile ticketing will become more popular over the next few years, with 2.6 billion tickets worth $87 billion, delivered by 2011.

The study attributed the increased interest in mobile coupons and ticketing to new NFC technologies. The technology is cheaper for vendors than using paper tickets, and mobil coupons are showing a higher conversion rate and added security.

Read the full story here.

Norwegian banking group DnB Nor and local telco Telenor have revealed plans to establish a new mobile payments program. The new mobile payments system, called Trusted Service Manager (TSM) Nordic, will be a subsidiary of Doorstep.

The move comes at the same time as a public trial of near field communications (NFC)-based contactless mobile payments technology by DnB Nor, Telenor and MasterCard.

The new company will distribute and maintain payment cards and tickets in handsets on behalf of issuers and in cooperation with mobile operators.

The pilot will use MasterCard’s PayPass contactless technology, which will enable customers to pay for low-value purchases at certain retailers in Oslo’s city center by tapping their handsets on a specially-equipped terminal. Customers are also able to pay for and store travel tickets using their handsets.

The demise of checks in western Europe is set to accelerate over the next few years, with around 60% of retailers no longer accepting them by 2015 as electronic cards and mobile payments gain in popularity, according to research commissioned by Visa. The Center for Retail Research - which surveyed more than 300 retailers in France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK - found the weighted average of retailers in these countries that do not accept checks in 2008 is 20.3%.

Contactless payments could have the biggest impact over the next few years, with phone-enabled payments expected to be accepted by 32.7%, contactless cards by 26.4% and keyfobs or tags by 19.1%.

ViVOtech is extending its ViVOpay line of contactless readers into the kiosk market by introducing the ViVOpay Kiosk contactless payment module. The new technology is certified to work with all major contactless payment programs and allow third-party Kiosk host systems to accept contactless payments without requiring lengthy and costly compliance re-certifications.

“Contactless payments and ticketing systems are experiencing rapid growth worldwide, prompting kiosk manufacturers and operators to look for solutions that can be easily integrated with new and existing systems,” said Mohammad Khan, ViVOtech President and Founder. ‚”The ViVOpay Kiosk module enables payment solution providers in transportation, retail, parking and other industries to now accept contactless and NFC mobile payments at their unattended Kiosks with minimal effort.”

The new Parrot PARTY Black Edition Bluetooth speaker is now going to be offered with NFC capabilities. The speakers will have six watts of power, a 5-button user interface, eight hours of battery life and an auxiliary input.

Henri Seydoux, founder and CEO of Parrot commented, “The added value lies in the fact that NFC is fast and easy to use, while guaranteeing a high level of security.”

The PARTY Black Edition also has two audio effects developed by Parrot. Stereo Widening, gives the music a surround sound effect and Virtual SuperBass reinforces the bass frequencies. The speakers can be paired easily with any Bluetooth device including mobile phones, MP3 players, PCs or Macs.