Contactless: Partnership between Orange and Nokia
- During the 2012 WIMA conference in Monaco (11-13 April), the Finnish manufacturer Nokia announced its partnership with Orange France to propose a new mobile phone. These players are getting ready to sell an NFC compatible Lumia 610 and may envisage its use in payment, loyalty, and ticketing contexts. This phone also complies with Cityzi (standard crafted by the French mobile contactless association – AFSCM) and has been approved by MasterCard and Visa. Orange should also propose this model on other EU markets.
- The Windows Phone-based Lumia 610 NFC is set to be launched in Q3-2012. Its non-NFC version is not for sale yet and might cost 249 euros.
Source: ITespresso.fr
- In France, this announcement fits in the deployment of contactless multi-application technologies, as several projects are being launched in different towns and even receiving subsidies from the government (see March 2012 Insight).
- The semi-conductor INSIDE Secure announces having contributed to supply NFC features for the Lumia 610, first ever NFC Smartphone in Windows Phone 7.
- At first, the phone will exclusively be proposed by Orange, but it should latter on be made available by its rivals, too.
- Orange Business Services has committed to invest in NFC and, during the same conference, announced the availability of its Web design programme, Mobile Web Edition: originally dedicated to mobile Web and the issuing of QR-codes, this solution now enables customers to create NFC tags: companies, administrations, etc. can receive their own customised tags.