Hannover, Germany — Nokia Corporation, Royal Philips Electronics and Sony Corporation have established the Near Field Communication (NFC) Forum to enable the use of touch-based interactions in consumer electronics, mobile devices, PCs, smart objects and for payment purposes. Touch-based interactions will allow users to access content and services in an intuitive way by touching smart objects and connecting devices just by holding them next to each other. The new forum will promote implementation and standardization of NFC technology to ensure interoperability between devices and services.

Consumers are seeking easier ways to interact with their immediate environment and to enable easy communications between their electronic devices and to gain access to services. The vision of the NFC Forum is to enable users to access content and services in an intuitive way. To bring this vision to life, Nokia, Philips and Sony invite other leading companies from mobile communications, consumer electronics, chip manufacturing, computing, media and entertainment, telecom and payment services to join the NFC Forum.

"Nokia sees touch-based interactions, enabled by Near Field Communciation technology, as an elegant way of bringing Nokia's Life goes Mobile vision into reality," said Pertti Korhonen chief technology officer and senior vice president, Nokia. "Touch is an intuitive and easy way to connect, collect and share with mobile devices. It will not only enhance the experience of using current services but also create entirely new applications and value. Nokia is looking forward to working with the other members to bring this exciting new user experience to the mobile world."

NFC technology evolved from a combination of contactless identification (RFID) and interconnection technologies. NFC operates in the 13.56 MHz frequency range, over a distance of typically a few centimetres. NFC is also compatible to the broadly established contactless smart card infrastructure based on ISO 14443 A, i.e. Philips MIFARE technology, as well as Sony's FeliCa* card.

For more information, visit www.nfc-forum.org.

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