Galaxy Nexus NFC phone set to hit Verizon for $199 on 8th December?

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Galaxy Nexus NFC smartphone set to hit Verizon for $199 on 8th December?

When the Galaxy Nexus NFC smartphone is going to be released and for how much has been a mystery. However, recent leaks may have finally found the answers to those questions. The much anticipated NFC smartphone was caught on a flash ad that was released early by mistake, and it showed the Galaxy Nexus priced at $199.99 on a two year contract. That ad was seen on Android Police, Phandroid and Droid Forums. It was also reported by Engadget, which suggests it’s a little more definite than a simple anomaly. That same ad linked to a page that was unavailable and the URL and the title to that page contained a date of the 29th of November, which we think may be when the Ice Cream Sandwich NFC smartphone may be given its official release date.

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NFC robot project shows the future of toys

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NFC robot project shows the future of toys

We love the development community when it comes to innovative NFC based projects, and an NFC robot project by Erin the Robot Grrl could show the future of toys. The whole attraction of NFC is based on causality. If I put “this” close to “that” something happens. In that vein, the the robot hat project was born. The concept is that by placing different hats embedded with NFC tags on Erin’s BubbleBoy robot that it initiates different behaviors. We won’t spoil the cool video where you get to see the different interactions performed by BubbleBoy when he gets a new hat, but do give the video a look!

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Galaxy Nexus coming to Canada December 8th on Bell and Virgin Mobile

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Galaxy Nexus coming to Canada December 8th on Bell and Virgin Mobile

Yep, that’s right – the Galaxy Nexus NFC smartphone is hitting Canada on Bell and Virgin Mobile December 8th. You can pre-order the Galaxy Nexus today. Pre-ordering the highly anticipated Galaxy Nexus NFC smartphone early ensures you are among the first to get your grubby mits on the NFC totting Ice Cream Sandwich device “as soon as it’s available” but that doesn’t mean you will have the device in your hands on launch day.

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Expansys has the HSPA+ Galaxy Nexus up for pre-order $750

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Expansys has the HSPA+ Galaxy Nexus up for pre-order $750

Expansys has the HSPA+ Galaxy Nexus NFC smartphone up for pre-order. So, if you are loving the thought of the Galaxy Nexus in your pocket, but need a GSM version that will work with AT&T or T-Mobile and you now don’t have to wait until Verizon’s exclusive comes to an end if you are willing to pony up $749.99. We don’t know when those pre-orders will be fulfilled as yet (and we think you must be hardcore to spend that much on an NFC smartphone), but Expansys will take your order if you want to be among the first to own a Galaxy Nexus GSM version in the States.

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Galaxy Nexus NFC phone questions left unanswered

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Galaxy Nexus NFC phone so much said, yet so many questions left unanswered

As we are sure you are aware, last night the Samsung Galaxy Nexus NFC phone and Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) were unveiled and announced to the world. We learned a lot about the Android Beam, Face Unlock and features of the Galaxy Nexus but there were a lot of questions that people are eager to know about left unanswered. Let’s start with our favorite subject – NFC on the Galaxy Nexus.

Unanswered NFC questions about the Galaxy Nexus which is an NFC phone

First thing’s first, we didn’t find out whether the phone will ship with NFC turned on for all mobile network operators. We know that many have been blocking NFC because they fear the extra data that will be used by consumers. We exclusively learned that the reason that AT&T had the NFC turned of in the Samsung Galaxy S II was for this very reason. Will the Galaxy Nexus meet the same fate?

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Samsung Galaxy Nexus NFC phone announced for Verizon in US

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Samsung Galaxy Nexus NFC phone announced for Verizon in US

It’s official, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus has been announced and it’s an NFC phone of the hero flavor. There have been months of speculation, including false rumors and poets hinting at what the NFC Samsung Galaxy Nexus may hold in store for consumers. Now we know, and the waiting is nearly over before you have the next pure Google experience phone in your pocket. We do have to say though, that the webcast sucked. Obviously here at NFC Rumors, Near Field Communication is a key element we are interested in and tonight we learned that the mighty NFC is on board as you probably expected from Google. Not only that, but NFC is the core component of Android Beam in the Galaxy Nexus.

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IEMR says mobile payments will hit $945 billion in 2015

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IEMR Global Mobile Payment Market Forecast 2009 – 2015 projects that mobile payments will hit $945 billion in 2015

By the time we reach 2015, IEMR expects that there will be 893 million mobile payments users that will generate a staggering $945 Billion in transactions. Those mobile transactions will use NFC, SMS, WAP, and USSD according to the research firm. IEMR expects these transactions to be used to make purchases for merchandise, digital products, ticketing, mobile money transfers, bill payments, and prepaid top-ups.

We are seeing evidence of programs being brought to market for all of those transaction types. For the world to get to nearly $1 trillion in transactions, there will need to be mass adoption and industry stakeholders will have to stop battling for control. The report is based on IEMR’s Global Consumer Telecommunications Survey which covers 50,000 mobile users in 50 markets globally, which is one of the biggest polls we have heard of here at NFC Rumors.

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Canadians not enthused by the thought of using Google Wallet or NFC payments

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Canadians not enthused by the thought of using Google Wallet or NFC payments It turns out Canadians are still not convinced about using Google Wallet or NFC payments in general. In a poll conducted on behalf of ITBusiness.ca Canadians generally elicited a lukewarm response to using Google Wallet or other NFC payments services and showed a distinct interest in [...]

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Capgemini puts on free NFC webcast October 17th

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Capgemini puts on free NFC webcast October 17th Capgemini is presenting an NFC focused “What’s in Store for U.S. Chip-Enabled Payments: EMV and Mobile” webcast, including findings from their 2011 World Payments Report in a free webcast on October 17, 2011 at 1:00 pm EST. The webcast will utilize insideVirtual’s platform which hosts a integrated social media, [...]

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NFC stocks: Is it no NFC in the iPhone 4S hitting Apples stock price?

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Is no NFC and no LTE in the iPhone 4S hitting Apple’s stock price? Or was Apple’s stock artificially inflated by NFC stocks?

Apple stocks took a tumble today which may have partially been because the iPhone 4S is without NFC

A lot of people were disappointed with the iPhone 4S, and we can speculate that just from what we have seen happening out on the social networks. We can also speculate that people who are interested in NFC stocks may have quietly been buying Apple stock over the last few weeks and then dumped it on the news that Apple has not included NFC in the iPhone 4S. As far as investors were concerned, it was Tim Cook’s debut today and for the new CEO to inspire confidence in investors, he needed to show that the company could deliver a forward thinking product that probably incorporated NFC and LTE. However, Cook spent far less time on stage than Steve Jobs would have and Apple delivered a somewhat lack luster device after a three month lag in their standard release schedule.

NFC stocks are a hot topic for investors at the moment and if Apple has announced that the iPhone 4S would feature NFC it would have been natural to think that Apple would have pressed that advantage and would have delivered an NFC mobile wallet that would have added the massive NFC payment recurring revenue to Apple’s bottom line.

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Apple fails to deliver NFC in the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5 is a no show

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Apple fails to deliver NFC in iPhone 4s, iPhone 5 was a no show

Apple delivers a disappointing minor upgrade it called the iPhone 4S today, and that didn’t include any NFC functionality at all. Consumers didn’t get NFC in the iPhone 4S and as such, Apple has shown that it is falling behind the times. It isn’t that the iPhone 4S isn’t a great looking smartphone and it does have the best selection of apps of any operating system. However, with NFC marching forward and models already in the marketplace, the iPhone 5 without NFC doesn’t represent the creative and forward thinking advancement we have come to expect from Apple. Now Android, Microsoft and many other competitors, including Samsung, have the competitive edge over Apple in NFC. We wouldn’t be too shocked if this lack of support for the iPhone 5 didn’t tarnish Apple’s glossy, glossy image and begin a declining process that will see Apple fall from the enviable position it has now held for years.

The frustrating thing is that Apple has everything it needed to deploy a wonderful NFC experience. It could have used a secured version of iCloud as its provisioning service. It has worked on the iTravel and iCruise apps, and a tie-in with iTunes could have given Apple an already universal payment acceptance method that the company would just have had to add the NFC component. But it didn’t. The biggest feature announced in the iPhone 4S was the Siri integration, which is an impressive personal assistant feature. It allows users to ask their iPhones a question and then it responds. It also can set up meetings and take certain actions that a user requests. Whereas Siri is a truly impressive application that iOS 5 now comes with, we wonder if it is enough to hold Apple at the top for another year.

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BlackBerry NFC issues end in sight NFC phone rumors [Exclusive]

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An end may be in sight for BlackBerry users with NFC issues with an added bonus to come, exclusive NFC phone rumors

We have covered the problems with BlackBerry NFC phones probably more than any other site on the web. Of course, what has helped is that we have had multiple sources close to the situation that have given us exclusive information on the subject. If you have followed the news lately, you will already know that RIM hasn’t had an easy ride of things with declining demand for their products and sales plummeting in every market. But within dismal results RIM has forged relationships with HID, Isis and have arguably been every bit as active as Nokia in the realm of NFC. RIM is rumored to be readying their QNX operating system that will update BlackBerry phones so they can be competitive again, and we at NFC Rumors would like to see BlackBerry do well. That said, NFC has been the problem that BlackBerry just hasn’t been able to get to grips with, and today we have more exclusive information for you.

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GlobalPlatform launches its compliance trademark

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GlobalPlatform launches its compliance trademark

Global Platform has announced the launch of its compliance trademark to ensure the creation and maintenance of an interoperable, sustainable and trusted end-to-end environment for managing applications on secure chip technology. If you come to NFC Rumors on a somewhat regular basis, you will know that we yarn on about security, Secure Elements and standards like those put forward by organizations like the NFC Forum. Global Platform is the cross industry, not-for-profit association which identifies, develops and publishes specifications that facilitate the secure and interoperable deployment and management of multiple embedded applications on secure chip technology. GlobalPlatform are the organization that put forward the technical specifications to ensure that the secure element in your Google Nexus S is secure, or an NFC SIM or NFC USIM is tamper-proof.

NFC has started to reach a tipping point where mainstream usage is all but assured. Secure Elements are expected to be used globally across finance, mobile/telecom, government, healthcare, retail and transit industries. In the future, GlobalPlatform’s trademark will also be applicable to card products issued by banks and governments.

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Collis launches Mobile Test Center for TSMs at NFC World Congress

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Collis launches mobile test center at NFC World Congress

The Dutch firm Collis plans to launch its mobile test center at NFC World Congress, which is aimed at helping Trusted Service Managers (TSM) that use NFC technology for NFC payments. Let’s face it, NFC is a very new technology. Perhaps not in how long it has been around, but certainly in how long mass deployments have been attempted. The industry is still grappling with control issues and the different stakeholders are still finding their way in this nascent arena we like to call NFC. Mobile commerce and NFC payments are still new also, and one of the main problems faced by NFC stakeholders at the moment when it comes to NFC commerce, is that standards are thin on the ground. Collis thinks it has the consultative solution.

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NFC development problems NXP/ Microsoft/RIM [Exclusive]

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NFC development problems NXP/ Microsoft/RIM [Exclusive]

Whispers have been getting louder all week about NXP Semiconductors, Microsoft and RIM. NFC is getting more pervasive and so are the rumors that echo around the halls of NFC Rumors HQ. There are whispers in corridors, the water cooler attracts a crowd and everything goes quiet if you enter a room. NXP, Microsoft and RIM have some issues on their hands and we have heard about them from some pretty direct sources. We have been sitting on these revelations for a few days because alone we didn’t feel they were strong enough for a post, but together they start to paint a picture of just how nascent NFC is and how uncooperative it is acting with major software and hardware giants.

We called the problems BlackBerry was having with NFC over a month ago, we speculated that a major OS company would make an announcement that it was supporting NFC, but we didn’t hear about NXP until this last week. Want to know more? Of course you do, that’s why you clicked on this post.

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Canadian BMO Bank announces PayPass NFC stickers for phones

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Canadian BMO Bank announces PayPass NFC stickers for phones

It’s a tough job being Canada’s number one credit card issuing bank, but BMO Bank of Montreal does it with a smile. It’s probably smiling because it has recently announced that it will be providing customers with NFC stickers that allow for PayPass NFC payments.

Meanwhile, here in the States, people crowd around to look at an EMV card in wonder and NFC payments are practically legendary with only the few that report that they have seen such a transaction, let alone conducted one. The Canadian bank cares about their customers backs and have collaborated with MasterCard to negate the need for loose change that could potentially result in a trip to the chiropractor. Oh, how in an NFC world it doesn’t suck to be Canadian. Well, not in healthcare, crime and quality of life either… but what’s most important is the NFC. But let’s stop lamenting and get to BMO’s NFC announcement.

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BlackBerry Curve Touch 9380 NFC phone snapped in the wild again

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BlackBerry Curve Touch 9380 NFC phone snapped in the wild again and coming to Telus very soon

We know we have shown you a photograph of the BlackBerry Curve Touch 9380 NFC phone before, but this time BGR managed to catch a few shots of the upcoming BlackBerry, which will join the 9350, 9360 and 9370 NFC phones in the BlackBerry Curve Touch line up of budget NFC phones. It seems that RIM is attempting to saturate the market with a plethora of phones that have a slight variation on each other. This may explain why they are getting not-so-hot sales results from the BlackBerry 7 OS devices.

With more Curves and Bolds than you can shake a stick at, we all just want to know where the QNX NFC phones are. If you are in the market for a small budget NFC phone that’s probably going to cost less than $100, we doubt it can hurt any to add another to the pile.

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Study finds NFC mobile wallet concept appeals to 39% of Canadians

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Study finds NFC mobile wallet concept appeals to 39% of Canadians

A new study conducted by Hotspex and Technology Strategies International (TSI) of 1,000 Canadians has revealed that just over 1 in three respondents says that the concept of using an NFC mobile wallet appeals to them.

Not only did only 39% of consumers surveyed state that they find the concept of an NFC mobile wallet appealing, but only 27% would recommend the concept to a friend.  These results are somewhat lukewarm when it is considered that the infrastructure in Canada is embracing NFC payments and related technologies. However, it’s not all bad news because consumer feedback contained some interesting suggestions on how the mobile wallet concept could be improved to alleviate security issues and ensure acceptance in the Canadian marketplace.

“Most of the players in the mobile payments ecosystem are aware that consumer concerns around security are significant barriers to adoption,” says Christie Christelis, President of Technology Strategies International.

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AT&T throws up coming soon page for NFC Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-i777

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AT&T throws up coming soon page for NFC Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-i777

The NFC version of the Samsung Galaxy S II has been a long time coming to the United States and Canada. We heard a couple of weeks that AT&T would indeed be bring us an NFC version of the Samsung Galaxy S II this fall. Today we have spotted a coming soon page over at AT&T with the obligatory email capture form to let you know when there is more news. In our experience those forms let you know a week after we report the news here at NFC Rumors, but if you want to get on the AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II mailing list click here.

Three of the four big carriers are getting their own version of the Samsung Galaxy S II, but only T-Mobile and AT&T’s version are expected to have NFC-capable hardware, although it is not clear at this time whether the nascent technology will be turned on at the phone’s launch as it may encourage consumers to use Google Wallet instead of Isis’ solution that won’t be market ready until 2012. We also have no idea yet whether the NFC version of the Samsung Galaxy S II will have a secure element. If it doesn’t, it will need a SIM card to enable payments and to store NFC based transaction apps which again will mean that Isis is your only hope of utilizing the Samsung Galaxy S II for NFC payments.

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NFC self-service terminals to become more accessible in Europe

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APSIS4All NFC self-service terminals to become more accessible in Europe

A new European Union funded project called APSIS4All is getting underway to make self-service terminals like public transport ticket vending machines or public information kiosks and ATM’s more prevalent and accessible in six European countries using NFC technology at its core.

The new European project will be aimed at helping disabled people and pensioners, or people over 65 years of age, starting in Barcelona from September this year and then moving to provide NFC ticket vending machines in Paderborn, Germany in January of next year. The European Commission is contributing €3.41 million to the three year project, which is half of the required budget.

European Commission news is like London buses when it comes to NFC, nothing for months and then two turn up at the same time. It was only yesterday all our troubles seemed so far away, and then the feisty MNO Three UK spoke up to be counted and attempted to have the UK NFC joint venture prevented from doing business, disbanded or made to write sorry letters to everyone in Blighty, and ordered to write a hundred lines on the black board – “I must not nefariously try to get rid of competitors using unethical business practices, cripple new markets that would help the economy, or attempt to negate and abuse British consumers’ rights.”

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Mobile payments to be worth $945 Billion in 2015

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Mobile payments set to grow by a 30 fold factor from 2010 levels

IE Market Research have released their latest research and are projecting that global mobile transactions will be worth a total of $945 billion by 2015 which is a 30 fold jump over 2010 figures.

The Canadian research firm IE Market Research Corporation have released their third quarter Global Mobile Payment Forecast which projects that NFC mobile payments and transactions could top $945 billion by 2015. Over the months we have seen figures that run the gamut from just 100 billion to topping $1.2 trillion in NFC mobile payment transactions. However there appears to be somewhat of a settling of figures of late and IEMR’s latest study sits right in the center of educated guesses of the upcoming splurge on NFC and general mobile transactions.

“Our usage surveys reflect a trend of mobile payments growing commonplace in the Western world, corroborated by the fact North American and Western European markets are geared up for the beginning stages of a full-fledged adoption of the digital wallet.”

Twenty ten saw just $31.5 billion in mobile payments and transactions and that figure is set to soar up to or even beyond $945 billion by 2015. The research house states that this projection is based on its expectations that mobile payments and, we can assume a vast majority of that is NFC payments, will go main stream between 2012 and 2014. However, the report doesn’t see NFC having that big of an impact in mobile payments leading up to 2015.

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NFC payments hotting up in Canada as Rogers wants to start a Bank

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Rogers Communications wants to start a bank which could take NFC payments mainstream in Canada

The owner of Canada’s largest wireless telephone service provider has told the federal finance department that it will apply to become a financial institution called Rogers Bank, to be headquartered in Toronto.

“Would you like that deposited in your account or paid off your mobile bill?” could be a perfectly normal question for a Rogers customer to be asked if the communications company gets its way and is able to start  Rogers Bank. We reported a couple of weeks ago that Rogers is looking to deploy NFC payments on its network and could be collaborating with TD to do so. Since then we have seen that Rogers will get the NFC Samsung Galaxy S II on its network this fall, and now the company has come forward to confirm some of the banking rumors which have been rife.

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Toronto Parking Authority (TPA) now accepts Visa payWave NFC payments

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Canadians can now pay for parking with Visa payWave NFC payments at 43 Toronto Parking Authority (TPA) locations thanks to Zeag

The move towards a cashless society takes another step forward as the Toronto Parking Authority (TPA) deploys Visa payWave contactless and NFC payments at 43 locations throughout the city. Canadians can now pay for parking with a wave of an NFC phone or EMV contactless card at any one of 11,600  parking spaces in Toronto with no loose change required.

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Canadians can Pre-order you NFC Samsung Galaxy S II LTE on Rogers now

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Canadians can Pre-order their brand new sparkly NFC Samsung Galaxy S II LTE on Rogers now today

We reported that Canada folk would get their hands on an NFC Samsung Galaxy S II courtesy of Rogers and today the mobile network operator came through with a pre-order form for the legendary phone with a touch of LTE 4G goodness. However, we should warn you that they want you to put some skin in the game if you are going to order this beast and they want $40 up front. We posted the details straight from the Rogers site after the break.

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AT&T does have an NFC Samsung Galaxy S II after all, Sprint does not

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AT&T does have an NFC Samsung Galaxy S II after all, Sprint does not

Just when the world seemed cold and harsh, the team at Engadget turned our frown upside down by discovering that the AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II does have NFC support after all. We had reported sometime ago that Samsung was expected to ship models of the NFC Samsung Galaxy S II with the near field communications chip turned off and it was then up to mobile network operators to decide if and when they wanted it activated and this appears to be the case for AT&T. It was also surprising when there was nary a mention of NFC in the press releases issued yesterday for the release of the United States’ Samsung Galaxy S II. Further compounded by the fact that we saw an NFC Samsung Galaxy S II come through the FCC some time ago and things just weren’t adding up.

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