NXP, Gemalto et al form MIFARE4Mobile NFC industry group
30 June, 2010
category: NFC
Seven leading players in the NFC ecosystem: Ericsson, Gemalto, NXP, Oberthur Technologies, STMicroelectronics, Venyon, a company in the Giesecke&Devrient group, and ViVOtech, joined forces to form the MIFARE4Mobile Industry Group.
The aim of the group is to work together to standardize and advance the uniform management of MIFARE applications on NFC-enabled secure elements, such as SIM cards and mobile phones.
MIFARE has become one of the most widely adopted contactless technologies on the global market today, most commonly found in public transportation schemes, ticketing systems and access management.
MIFARE4Mobile, developed by NXP, is used to manage MIFARE-based services in NFC mobile devices, from the over-the-air installation to the end-user interaction via the user interface of the mobile phone.
By bringing together some of the key players in the NFC ecosystem, the group will act as a platform to provide future direction to ensure evolution, interoperable development and implementation of the MIFARE4Mobile technology.
“The creation of this new industry group provides further impetus to the development of NFC applications for mobile phones especially given MIFARE’s reach as a key contactless platform,” said Jonathan Collins, principal analyst, ABI Research. “As SIM-based NFC phones come to market, greater collaboration by all stakeholders to remove development and interoperability barriers in existing contactless infrastructures will help drive NFC adoption.”
Over the next few months, the MIFARE4Mobile industry group will further develop the specifications supporting MIFARE DESFire technology and multiple Trusted Service Managers, following the initial MIFARE4Mobile release from late 2008 supporting MIFARE Classic technology.