Near field communications set for real world use

Philips and ViVOtech have begun a major initiative to deploy Philips' near field communication technology-based contactless payment and promotion solutions in physical merchant environments.

Royal Philips Electronics and ViVOtech have begun a major initiative to deploy Philips' near field communication (NFC) technology-based contactless payment and promotion solutions in physical merchant environments for the first time.

By having NFC as a feature in their mobile phones, shoppers will be able to make purchases simply by waving their phone near a ViVOtech reader device at the checkout that automatically initiates the payment process.

Philips and ViVOtech will combine their unique expertise and technology strengths to accelerate the use of mobile payment and promotion solutions to make transactions quicker, easier, and safer for consumers.

This partnership between Philips and ViVOtech will allow an NFC-enabled mobile phone to be used as a payment and promotion device.

All a user needs to do is to wave the mobile phone in front of the ViVOpay 3000 reader and the NFC technology enables the mobile phone to communicate with the ViVOpay reader to transfer payment data in a secure manner.

For mobile phone users, this means easier access to content and services of their choice such as entertainment, transit and shopping.

Philips' NFC is a combination of contactless identification and interconnection technologies that enables convenient short-range radio frequency (RF) communication between personal electronic devices.

ViVOtech provides software technology and reader infrastructure that allows consumers to make contactless payments with an NFC-enabled mobile phone at existing point-of-sale (POS) systems.

"Consumers are seeking for easier and faster ways to make payments with their mobile devices and NFC offers a natural way to link consumers with the merchant's POS systems".

"Philips has been leading the development of this technology and we're excited about partnering with a worldwide leader in the deployment of our solutions to make a payment transaction quicker than cash and safer than check", said Jorge Fernandes, CEO and cofounder of ViVOtech.

"Our relationship with ViVOtech will mean enriching consumers' payment experience and the opportunity to leverage each others' strengths", said Sour Chhor, General Manager of Contactless and Embedded Security, Philips Semiconductors.

"It is our mission to continuously provide our customers with innovative solutions enabling them easy access to information, entertainment and services anywhere at any time".

"We are pleased to see that NFC technology, which complements our contactless-payment strategy, will be deployed at the point of sale through this initiative by Philips and ViVOtech", said Gaylon Howe, Executive Vice President, Consumer Product Platforms, Visa International.

"Nurturing the evolution of secure universal commerce and connectivity - whereby physical and digital services can be purchased anywhere, any time, and with any device - helps to ensure that Visa and our member financial institutions continue to have a breadth of payment solutions compatible with NFC and other technologies that can address unique regional operating environments and changing market demands".

NFC can also enable ViVOtech's ViVOwallet software, which includes the ability to pay and to use loyalty cards, gift cards, SMS/MMS promotions, and e-coupons.

Customers can carry coupons digitally on their phones and use them for payments and to redeem promotions at any ViVOtech enabled location.

ViVOtech's end-to-end solution allows payments as well as authentication of e-coupons at the point-of-sale terminal.

NFC technology will be a major advantage to content providers and merchants, allowing them to generate new revenue streams and establish enriched relationships with their customers.

For banks it will provide an opportunity to improve customer convenience and create new service models.

ViVOtech's ViVOwallet solution adds a powerful application to the mobile phone - spurring new consumer usage and opening the door to incremental revenue opportunities for wireless operators, merchants and handset makers.

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