Proxama Blog

Nokia’s NEW NFC 6216 Classic

At first glance, Nokia’s announcement last week about the new Nokia 6216 doesn’t seem so "new".  For the most part, the handset is identical to the existing 6212 (which is what we do all our current NFC development work on). What makes it new is that the secure element is on the SIM - whereas the old version has an integrated chip, as a feature of the handset itself.

So what difference does this SIM centric approach make? It’s what the network operators have been pushing for – for well publicised business reasons. The operator has the billing relationship with the subscriber and is best placed to promote and manage new services. While many of us do show some brand loyalty and preference in terms of handset choice, the ongoing commercial relationship tends to be with the operator.

From a technical view point, remote management of the applications is much simpler with the SIM centric model also – because the operators already have a framework to do automatic SIM updating via SMS. This is important for lots of reasons but most particularly if you think about some of the applications NFC will support – like payment. If I were to lose my NFC phone I’d want to be sure that the payment application could be switched off immediately.

As far as applications are concerned – most of them will port seamlessly. You’ll be able to do all the usual stuff like using smart posters for service discovery. There are some implications for applications like ticketing – although they are really just product development issues for the SIM vendors. Oyster for example requires Mifare support and not all of the SIMs on the market offer this currently because there hasn’t been the business need.

Do we think this will speed up the roll out of NFC enabled services? Yes – probably -  because it was one of the main reasons that network operators were dragging their heels with NFC.

Tagged with Mobile Mobile marketing Mobile payments Near Field Communication

0 Comments. Posted by Victoria 29 April 2009

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