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.