Sina Technology News, April 28th - At the "China Mobile E-commerce Annual Conference" held in Chengdu, it was revealed that China's NFC-based mobile payment services will enter an expanded promotion phase in the second half of 2011, under the joint efforts of the People's Bank of China, UnionPay, telecom operators and others. During the conference, TCL Communication and China UnionPay jointly launched China's first NFC phone, the mac dvd decrypter.
NFC Standard Payment Phones to Land in China
This is a significant conference where UnionPay showcased its supported NFC standards and NFC phones. NFC is a close-range wireless communication technology used for small-amount mobile payments and has become the de facto global standard in the mobile payment sector.
According to a recent report by market research company Forrester, the shipment volume of NFC-enabled phones is expected to reach 40 million to 50 million units in 2011. Jobs appeared to interpret the white iPhone: a collection of multiple new technologies. By the end of 2012, about 300 million phones/PDAs worldwide will have NFC functionality, accounting for approximately 20% of the total smartphone market. NFC is expected to become the mainstream of mobile payment within the next few years.
Currently, many international top-tier companies, including Google, Citi, and Microsoft, have expressed their intention to focus on NFC technology. Apple also indicated the potential to incorporate NFC functionality in its fifth-generation iPhone. From the international market perspective, the North American telecommunications market has the most extensive support for NFC technology. Mobile payments are already very popular in Japan, with NTT DoCoMo reportedly having over 57 million mobile payment terminal users.
UnionPay, along with China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom, have all started focusing on mobile payments, particularly UnionPay, which supports the 13.56 MHz based NFC standard.
TCL Launches China’s First NFC Phone
At this year's "China Mobile E-commerce Annual Conference," TCL Communication unveiled the TCL NFC payment phone, making TCL Communication one of the first domestic companies to collaborate with China UnionPay to launch an NFC phone.
In fact, TCL Communication has always been a collaborator with UnionPay. In September 2010, TCL Communication became the first to reach a strategic cooperation agreement with China UnionPay for UnionPay mobile payments and successfully launched several online payment-enabled phone terminals to the market.
It is understood that TCL Communication has always placed great emphasis on the R&D of mobile payment terminals. Previously, TCL Communication's NFC phones had successfully entered the European market and achieved good sales performance. Domestically, TCL Communication was the first last year to pass China UnionPay's secure payment certification as a mobile payment enterprise.
NFC Phones Basically Mature
Previously, TCL Communication launched several designated mobile payment terminals specified by China UnionPay. The main models currently available on the market can support UnionPay online payment. As the designated mobile payment terminal by China UnionPay, all products in the TCL series come pre-installed with the "UnionPay Online" client. After purchasing the phone, users only need to go through simple activation procedures to enjoy convenient payment services anytime, anywhere. The successful launch and promotion of these series of phones laid a solid foundation for TCL's collaboration with China UnionPay to introduce NFC phones this year.
TCL Communication stated that the appearance of this NFC payment phone demonstrates that TCL Communication has mature technology in the development of payment phones. With the further development of the mobile payment market, TCL Communication will continue to increase its investment in this field to seize the opportunity in the mobile payment market.
The debut of China's first TCL NFC phone at this event is also one of TCL Communication's key moves to gain a foothold in the mobile internet era. Since 2010, TCL Communication has begun deep strategic cooperation with leading domestic internet application and content service enterprises, creating a series of internet phones covering various formats from 2G to 3G. TCL Communication stated that it will fully focus on Android smartphones this year while continuing to strengthen resource investment and market integration in mobile internet application development.
To further enhance its independent R&D capabilities, TCL Communication formed a strategic alliance with France's Sagem in early 2011 and established the TCL Ningbo R&D Center. This move provides assurance for enhancing the company's R&D capabilities in 3G phones and smart systems. It also ensures the high-tech content terminal like the NFC phone's R&D capability. (Kang Zhao)
> Related Reports: TCL Communication announces large-scale entry into the domestic operator market
TCL Communication announces the appointment of Lu Dong as an independent non-executive director
TCL Communication reports revenue of HK$3.5 billion in the first half of the year, up 160% year-on-year