Jun 27
While the Samsung Galaxy S II remains the top selling phone in the UK, there is one major feature missing from it. The support for NFC. Well those who have not bought a Galaxy S II as of yet should be glad to know that Samsung is working on an NFC version that will be coming to the UK soon.
The tentative date is scheduled for June of this year but we would not be surprised if Samsung missed said launch date as NFC is still being rolled out and will not be completely ready until later this year. This news will probably receive a mixed reaction from Samsung fans. The extra functionality NFC provides is certainly welcome, but there are bound to be a few people who’ve already picked up an S II without the NFC chip who are disappointed not to have receive NFC support with their phones.
Mobot has quoted a representative from Samsung who said: “Regarding your query, kindly note we have received a confirmation that the Near Field Communication ‘NFC’ version of the Galaxy S II should be available in the UK by June 2011.”
Source: Mobot
Feb 07
This is something we’re not too surprised about, but news is being released that British mobile service provider O2 will be launching a new mobile service which is basically a mobile wallet payment application that will support Near Field Communication (NFC). The plan is to have the service and application live within the second half of 2011.
The service provider revealed the plans for the e-money system and their plans to get a license from the Financial Service Authority this year. Thanks to such a license, O2 would be able to offer person to person money transfers between its customers.
Currently, Google’s Nexus S supports near-field communication which allows devices within a close proximity to communicate information. It has also been widely rumored that the upcoming iPhone 5 will support the feature. The iPhone 5 is said to be coming to AT&T and Verizon in the United States and Vodofone in the UK.
Coupled with the payment system and application, O2 would position itself as a leader in NFC technology allowing users to tap their phones in order to make payments. This technology has been touted by many analysts as the biggest revolution in payment systems since the credit card came out decades ago.
O2 has gone ahead and formally trialed it’s NFC payment system using a Nokia unit. According to the carrier, after much trial and testing, the company was confident that now was the right time to move ahead and that it would be a success.
Of course, that is yet to be seen, but with major companies such as Verizon, Apple, Microsoft, Nokia, Google, LG, Samsung and others getting behind the technology, its adoption could move a lot faster than expected and we could begin seeing multiple implementations before the end of the year.
Source: PCR
