With over 120 million cell phones in operation, market research firms are labeling Japan as the seventh biggest mobile market in the world. And paying by cell phones is getting popular in the country. However, there are no international standards driving this mobile service in the country.
Presently, Sony’s contactless RFID smart card technology called FeliCa, also known as portable wallet (or Osaifu Keitai in Japanese), is commonly deployed in Japan. And is a de-facto standard. But, the country’s major mobile carriers are concerned because it does not comply with the global Type A and B near field communications (NFC) standards.
To address this issue, Japan’s three major mobile telecom companies, namely NTT (News - Alert) DoCoMo, KDDI au and SoftBank Mobile, have formed a NFC consortium named Japan Mobile NFC Consortium. The aim is to quickly switch from the Nippon-only Osaifu Keitai system to the Type A and Type B NFC standards employed internationally.
Aside from mobile carriers adopting the global NFC standards, the Japanese NFC Consortium also hopes to accelerate the adoption amongst Japanese suppliers and handset manufacturers, wrote TechCrunch reporter Serkan Toto.
The consensus here is that a universal NFC standard will not only streamline the domestic mobile payment services, but will also enable key Japanese handset makers like Sharp and Panasonic (News - Alert) to sell their products in international markets, wrote Toto.
According to Japan’s business daily newspaper The Nikkei, major Japanese handset manufacturers are planning to launch handsets employing Type A and Type B NFC standards at the end of 2012, Toto wrote.
Market research firm ABI Research (News - Alert) believes that NFC will be more than just a payment application. It will certainly serve other markets including logical and physical access control, transportation, retail and couponing to name but a few, according to analyst Phil Sealy, who posted these comments on the research firm’s blog.
The ABI analyst also identified a few issues that must be addressed before NFC applications begin to see mass volumes. These include easy availability of NFC enabled handsets, service charges, and NFC technology education, and security.
Ashok Bindra is a veteran writer and editor with more than 25 years of editorial experience covering RF/wireless technologies, semiconductors and power electronics. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.Edited by
Jennifer Russell
