Samsung have developed a prototype SGH-X700 mobile phone with NFC (Near Field Communication) that can be used for wireless transactions.  Using the NFC X700, users can pay for things such as CDs and DVDs, and gain entry to areas such as tube stations just by waving the phone over an appropriate receiver.  The mobile phone contains an e-wallet facility, which the user tops up with credit before swiping the phone over a receiver to pay for an item. NFC provides the wireless communication channel over which the transaction is made.

 

The new Samsung X700 NFC phone has been developed with Philips and Telefonica Moviles Espana and will be shown at 3GSM, where users will be able to use it to gain access to certain areas of the conference, and buy CDs and DVDs using a special kiosk at Philips' booth.

 

Read what Philips and Samsung have planned for the Samsung X700 NFC phone after the jump.

 

The Samsung SGH-X700 has been with us for a while. Adding NFC onto a prototype of the phone allows Philips to show off the work it's done with NFC at the 3GSM conference. But what work is that, you ask? What can you do with NFC, and how likely will it be that a real NFC-enabled phone is ever released?

 

NFC is based on RFID technology (Radio Frequency Identification), but rather than being read only (an RFID reader will let you read an RFID tag, but not write to it), NFC enables two devices to freely communicate with one another. In the case of Samsung's X700 NFC phone, one device is the X700, the other a terminal linked to a store's sales system. In other words, whatever transaction you wish to take place over the wireless NFC link can be made.

 

As for the likelihood of such phones actually going on sale, Nokia have already released an NFC shell for its Nokia 3220 phone. However, this remains firmly a niche product, whereas the Samsung X700 prototype contains NFC built-into the phone itself.

Japanese NFC mobile phones have been available for some time, using Sony's FeliCa contactless IC card system, which itself relies on NFC.  FeliCa provides a way of securely transferring data, and FeliCa phones from companies such as NEC let Japanese users pay for goods and board East Japan Railway's trains, for example, just by swiping their phone over suitable terminals. Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo has already shipped 10 million FeliCa-based mobile phones.

 

The good news is the new Samsung NFC X700, developed with Philips and Telefonica Moviles Espana, is also compatible with FeliCa. The even better news is that the demonstration of the X700 NFC phone at 3GSM, coupled with trials currently taking place in France, Germany, Taiwan and even the US, shows both Samsung and Philips are serious about exporting this technology around the world. So such phones really will become available to all in the very near future.