NFC: a New Deal or Time For Plan B?

Paris, February 10, 2009.
The January-February Issue of SmartCardsTrends came out.

EDITORIAL-. BILLIONS OF SMART ANTENNAS

CRITICAL TOPICS-. NFC: A NEW DEAL OR TIME FOR PLAN B?
Sill no NFC handsets? No matter, the NFC-SIM, NFC-SD and “NFC-smartsticker,” each embedding its own antenna, could gradually transform nearly all handsets into cards. It’s time for “plan B.”

Plan B #1: Incorporate NFC front-end and SIM in a plug-in format.
Plan B #2: add smart NFC stickers to Bluetooth phones.
Plan B #3: Transform SD cards into a secure NFC device.

NEWS FROM THE INDUSTRY-. Cartes & IDentification 08: Success but at half-tone.

ECOSMART-. Gemalto proves well-armed against crisis.
Ingenico walks in the rain without getting wet (almost).
Vasco Data Security International Reduces Revenue Guidance for Full Year 2008.
Maxim Acquires Innova Card.
Xiring’s turnover more than doubled in two years.
French Banque Populaire Group selects Xiring’s strong authentication solution.
300 million Mifare Ultralight-powered smart paper tickets issued in Moscow.
Gemalto and LG Electronics Launch the First Handset Supporting SC-Web Server.

KEY PEOPLE-. Vincent Truffier-Blanc, Marketing Director SW Telecom Offer, Gemalto
"Gemalto’s share of the OTA/TSM market is on the order of 35% to 40%"

TECHNOSMART-. Sagem-Orga and BlueSky Positioning co-develop complete GPS-SIM.
Industrialization of STMicroelectronics’ NFC circuit should start in mid-2009.

FINANCIALS-. OTI Board of Directors Adopts Shareholder Rights Plan.
Clear2Pay enjoys commercial momentum and raises €6 million in internal round.
News from SMARTRAC N.V, Document Security Systems, Inc.,
And and overall Industry Stocks Scoreboard with, for the first time, specific Index for Smart Security, EFT-POS, and Authentication Financial markets

MARKET STRENDS-. THE OTA/TSM Market.
- Interviews with :
- Arnaud de La Chapelle, General Manager Convergence Product Line, Oberthur Technologies.
- Lauri Pesonen, CEO, Venyon.
- Thian Yee Chua, CEO, Cassis International.
- Urs A. Lampe, VP Product Marketing & New Business, Legic Identsystems Ltd.