14 DAY TRIAL // Nexus S by Samsung was announced officially on Monday as the first mobile phone to come to the market with Google's new Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system on board, and also the first Android device to come with Near Field Communications (NFC) technology inside. Interestingly enough, it seems that the NFC controller inside the Nexus S does not come from Samsung, but was developed by NXP Semiconductors N.V., which partnered with Google for the move.
According to Google, NXP’s NFC controller (PN544) was integrated inside Nexus S so as to offer access to rich NFC based services and applications. The addition of this chip inside Nexus S should offer NFC capabilities to both consumer and developer communities around the world.
“Android’s openness has provided a great platform for accelerated innovations,” said Eric Chu, Mobile Platforms Program Manager, Google.
“We are always looking for creative ways to enhance and extend the utilities of mobile devices with new technologies.
“With NXP’s contribution, the introduction of NFC in Android provides developers, service providers, and device manufacturers a game-changing opportunity to deliver new services while enabling users to interact with each other and the physical world in ways previously not possible.”
The Android operating system is one of the fastest growing mobile operating systems around the world, with an extensive community of developers supporting it, and with a number of more than 100,000 applications available for download for end users.
Now, developers are offered the possibility to access an open source NFC implementation, and NXP committed to driving the development of new applications upwards.
The company is also set to help manufacturers come out faster with NFC enabled mobile devices, which benefiting from lower implementation and development costs.
“Although only two years old, industry analysts are already suggesting that Android will be the number two mobile platform by 2014,” said Ruediger Stroh, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Identification Business, NXP Semiconductors.
“Google’s adoption of the technology will be a catalyst for the industry to drive the further adoption of NFC at both the handset and application levels.
“Open source development environments will push the boundaries of innovation and drive revolutionary new services and applications for mobile devices.”
The PN544 – NFC Controller was released in 2009 as the first truly industry standard NFC controller. It provides a fully compliant platform for makers and wireless carriers to deliver next generation NFC devices and services.