Our Partner Fonelabs came in the news today disclosing their plans on the NFC phones of next year. The Compatible SD card for this phone is the N-Type from Cell idea. We expect that and good part of the phones will be equipped with this SD-card for secure NFC transactions, like ticketing and payment. 

For more information, contact us at info1@cell-idea.com

(Below article is from www.nearfieldcommunicationsworld.com)

Fonelabs to produce two million low-cost NFC phones in 2010

By Sarah Clark | December 3rd, 2009

The Malaysian manufacturer's NFC phones come with a built-in NFC antenna and controller as standard and are expected to cost under US$100 each in volume.

 

X-SERIES: The first mass-produced NFC handset is now going into production

Malaysian phone manufacturerFonelabs is to begin mass production of its X-Series NFC phones by the end of December and expects to sell in excess of two million units in 2010, the company's CEO Herve Jegou has told NFCW.

All Fonelabs phones come equipped as standard with a near field communication antenna and controller and have the ability to perform peer-to-peer and tag reading functions out of the box. A secure element can then be added to the phones via a microSD card so that payments and transport applications can also be supported. Once the company switches to using NXP's Single Wire Protocol compliant PN544 NFC controller at the end of February 2010, it will also be possible to enable payments and other secure applications via an NFC SIM too.

Pricing for NFC application and service providers looking for volumes in the hundreds or thousands of units will be around US$120 per unit, depending on the market, says Jegou. The addition of a secure microSD card to enable secure transactions will cost an additional US$15 for a 1GB card with SmartMX, supporting Mifare ticketing applications, for example.

During 2010 Fonelabs aims to reduce the unit price to under US$100 and, for large scale deployments, the price could drop further still.

The majority of phones produced in 2010 will not make use of an added secure element, however, Jegou told NFCW. The X-Series phones also feature a BlackBerry-like unified messaging system developed for low bandwidth markets. This, says Jegou, is the feature that is currently causing most interest amongst Asian mobile operators, with 70% to 80% of the phones produced this year expected to be sold on the basis of the device's messaging capabilities rather than its NFC functionality.

That said, says Jegou, "this is a way for us to also address the 'chicken and egg' issue of NFC and build a base of terminals which can then make launching NFC application easier. We are committed to NFC in the long term and are working with a number of partners looking to run pilots in Malaysian universities during 2010."

Cell idea introducing the "with me" , Now every phone can have NFC functionallity

Please find a video demonstration of our product: "with me" here.

With me is a NFC-Bluetooth device that enables NFC functionality to EVERY phone with bluetooth. Some of the key features:

• Low Bluetooth power consumption, enabling you BT-NFC device 
• Security smartcard chip embedded for secure applications
• Low cost consumer device
• Several form factors possible, strap, sticker, embedded into cover
• NFC peer to peer, reader mode and card mode according NFC-Forum specifications
• Several Patents pending

For more information please contact us at info1@cell-idea.com

Fonelabs Launches New X-Series Low-Cost NFC Enabled Mobile Phone for Emerging Markets

Fonelabs Launches New X-Series Low-Cost NFC Enabled Mobile Phone for Emerging Markets
X-Series to take full advantage of contactless transportation and banking infrastructure


19 February, 2009, Kuala Lumpur. Fonelabs Sdn Bhd, a Malaysia based mobile device company, is pleased to announce the release of a new generation of low cost handsets that will support enhanced NFC services for developing markets.

The X-Series phones will have a very complete feature set for the price of a low cost phone, It will incorporate Near Field Communication (NFC) from NXP Semiconductors and an internal antenna together with an optional MicroSD based secure element. Offering full compatibility with MIFARE™* technology, these low cost NFC mobile phones can be used with most contactless transport applications and can support any financial application relying on smart cards. The X-series NFC enabled mobile phones from Fonelabs supporting NFC applications will be available in March 2009.

Mr. Herve Jegou CEO of Fonelabs, had the following comment: "In many developing markets today, NFC and contactless secure cards provide real convenience for urban transportation and are key to the spread of financial services to rural areas. With the X-Series NFC enabled mobile phones, we give transport operators and financial institutions in these markets the ability to easily deploy their existing contactless smart cards services into mobile phones.

Fonelabs works with Cell Idea, a young yet innovative solution provider which focuses on mobile payment and mobile transactions. Cell Idea provides a secure NFC Micro SD-card to store the secure applications that can be used in the X-series NFC phones.

“Right now transport operators and service providers can personalize, manage and distribute microSD smart cards to their customers just like any of today's ATM or transport smart cards. Using their existing infrastructure and security model, service providers can instantly extend the convenience and reach of their services to mobile phones running on any mobile network,“ says Herve Jegou. “To succeed, NFC technology needs to be simple for both service providers and consumers. With our low cost X-Series phones, mobile contactless applications can be deployed today, with a simpler security and deployment model suitable for many developing markets."

The X-Series NFC mobile phones from Fonelabs will also provide Single Wire Protocol (SWP) compatibility starting in Q3 2009. Using the latest SWP-compliant NFC controller from NXP Semiconductors, all X-Series mobile phones will then support routing of NFC applications to both SD card and SIM card based secure elements.

“Cell-Idea strongly believes in the value of Contactless and NFC technologies.” said by Omer Katz, CTO of Cell Idea. “we believe that microSD is a very powerful means of bringing smart-cards and secure applications to various Consumer Electric products, especially to mobiles. Our Secure NFC Micro-Card is the perfect vehicle for financial institutions, transport operators and other NFC service providers to store their applications in a safe and secure way that is easy to deploy.’’

Steffen Steinmeier, Global Marketing Manager for NFC at NXP Semiconductors said, “The introduction of this low-cost NFC enabled mobile phone from Fonelabs is a huge step forward in the wide-scale rollout of NFC technology in the South East Asia region. NXP has been working very closely with Fonelabs to develop this handset. As existing contactless infrastructure for automatic ticketing and mobile payments can be easily leveraged with NFC-enabled handsets, we are confident that these phones will find an instant market in countries such as China, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Myanmar, the Philippines and Thailand.”

NFC is a standards-based, short-range wireless connectivity technology that enables simple and safe two-way interactions among electronic devices. NFC technology allows consumers to perform contactless transactions, access digital content and connect devices with the simplicity of a single touch. For more information please check: www.nfc-forum.org.

*MIFARE is a registered trademark of NXP B.V. in the U.S. and other countries.

About Fonelabs
Fonelabs is a mobile device developer and manufacturer headquartered in Malaysia. Fonelabs develops innovative mobile devices with NFC and provides mobility and online services and solutions to improve mobile communications. Among others, Fonelabs has a partnership with the largest University in Malaysia (UiTM) to develop innovative mobile software for Higher Learning Institutions and also receives support from the Ministry of Science ,Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) from Malaysia. For more information, please visit our website at www.fonelabs.com.

About Cell-idea
Cell idea International Limited is Cell Idea is a young and innovative company which believes in the future of mobile payment and NFC applications in mobile phones. They provide transitional hardware and software solutions to enable mobile payment and mobile transactions.The company established in 2007 and is headquartered in Hong Kong with development teams in Taiwan and Shenzhen. For more information please visit our website at www.cell-idea.com

About NXP Semiconductors
NXP is a leading semiconductor company founded by Philips more than 50 years ago. Headquartered in Europe, the company has about 33,500 employees working in more than 20 countries and posted sales of USD 6.3 billion (including the Mobile & Personal business) in 2007. NXP creates semiconductors, system solutions and software that deliver better sensory experiences in TVs, set-top boxes, identification applications, mobile phones, cars and a wide range of other electronic devices. News from NXP is located at www.nxp.com.

Cell Idea Press Release

Cell Idea International Limited will bring their transitional NFC solution to Americans largest electronics show CES 2009


HONG KONG, 5 January 2009, Cell Idea International Limited will demonstrate for the first time during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) which will be held in Las Vegas USA from January 8-11,2009 its revolutionary products, that will bridge the transition of current mobile phones to mobile phones with integrated Contactless and Near Field Communications (NFC) functionality.
Cell idea is a young yet innovative company located in Asia’s business heart, Hong Kong that provides excellent vertically integrated hardware and software solutions to enable mobile phones with contactless functionality and NFC.

During CES Cell Idea will release two types of micro-SD cards that are suitable for mobile payment.

The Cell idea secure NFC microSD-card (N-type) is a microSD card form factor card, that combines smart card security as well as standard embedded flash and works together with mobile phones that have NFC-technology embedded, it serves as a Storage devices as well as secure smartcard holding the secure applications like transportation wallets and payment wallets, mobile ATM and many other applications. The SD-card is available in different memory configurations. Mobile phones with the NFC-architecture compatible with the Cell Idea Secure NFC microSD-card will be available in course of 2009.
The Cell idea Secure contactless microSD card (D-type) is a dual Interface micro-SD card. It combines smartcard security as well as standard embedded Flash. When inserted into a mobile phone enables applications like mobile banking, mobile wallet, online payment, one time password and more applications. If your phone has an embedded antenna, the phone can be used as contactless terminal as well, enabling transportation and payment. Phones with contactless antenna are already available and there are more models expected in 2009.

More transitional solutions will be released by Cell idea in course of 2009.
“Contactless technologies like Near Field communications will change the way we use our phones. Many companies have announced their intention to use NFC in their offerings. It will however take time before there is sufficient penetration of NFC enabled mobile phones before a large deployment can take place. Cell Idea will focus on closing this window with products that let you upgrade your current phone to enable contactless functionality and later Near Field communications in a easy way, without having to buy a new phone” says Omer Katz, CTO of Cell idea.

Contactless SD-card reader

BenQ T80

The BenQ T80 phone is the world's first handset to store NFC applications in the Secure Digital Memory card. The microSD card will host a range of NFC applications for mobile wallet, transport ticketing and security to be stored on the embedded, highly secure NXP SmartMX chip.
For service providers, storing NFC applications on the SD memory card makes it possible to host a wide variety of applications on a single integrated device. Consumers benefit from the convenience of being able to remove and reuse the microSD card when they switch to other NFC phones.

For specifications and technical information please follow the link below to the virtual shop on our website.

(http://www.cell-idea.com:8080/Virtual_Shop/benqT80.jsp)