As ContactlessNews reported last week, SCM Microsystems has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Sony Corporation to develop and supply FeliCa contactless card readers for international markets. SCM officials now say that the Sony deal is a major step in a new strategy to focus on the fast growing contactless technology market.
The Sony agreement is a significant opportunity for SCM to gain a foothold in NFC distribution, given Sony’s status as a major player in the large Japanese NFC market, the company states. There are more than 250 million electronic payment cards and FeliCa-enabled mobile phones in circulation in Japan, making it the most developed contactless market in the world.
SCM plans to address the market by creating a broad range of readers and terminals supporting different contactless standards around the world. In some cases, SCM also plans to combine multiple standards into a single device to make it more universally useful and solve compatibility or conflicting standards issues between vendors or regions. SCM announced its first NFC-enabled product, a USB dongle for mobile payment applications, earlier this year. ![[end]](/resources/bullet/archive-4.gif)
