The News

String of Achievements Reinforces Company’s Leadership Role

05/02/2009

Aix en Provence, France, Feb. 5, 2009 – Just one year since introducing its award-winning MicroRead® NFC device, INSIDE Contactless, the world leader in advanced open-standard contactless chip technologies, will celebrate this innovative product’s outstanding series of successes and the company’s achievements in the NFC industry at next week’s Mobile World Congress.  From industry awards, field trial selection and investments by tier-1 handset makers, to establishing NFC interoperability testing, achieving major customer wins and becoming a Sponsor member of the NFC Forum, INSIDE Contactless has repeatedly demonstrated its industry leadership and commitment to advancing the adoption and implementation of near field communication (NFC) technology.

 “2008 was an incredible year of achievement for INSIDE Contactless. Not only did we provide the first standard-compliant NFC mature product to market, but we also speak the handset maker’s language and possesses the handset integration, validation and testing expertise required to be a truly valuable partner who can help speed development in what we anticipate will be a highly competitive market,” said Philippe Martineau, executive vice president of the NFC business line of INSIDE Contactless.  “We see great opportunity for NFC technology to create a new user experience as exciting as the touch screen, and for our customers such as Samsung and LGE, to bring new applications to mobile handsets.”

INSIDE and its MicroRead chip achieved several significant milestones in the past year. Among them are the following:

•         INSIDE and Sagem Wireless established a partnership to integrate MicroRead and its associated software stack into Sagem’s new NFC handset platform.

•         INSIDE’s MicroRead chip was included in most of the NFC handsets used by the Pay-Buy-Mobile operators in Australia, France, Ireland, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Norway, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Turkey and the U.S.

•         INSIDE became a Sponsor member of the NFC Forum, and joined its board of directors.

•         INSIDE’s MicroRead NFC chip was selected as the winner of the GSM Association’s 2008 Mobile Innovation Global Award for Most Innovative Device-Centric Technology.

•         Working to ensure the continued growth and acceptance of NFC, INSIDE and FIME teamed to ensure NFC interoperability and develop a comprehensive process, support and service portfolio for testing and certifying NFC mobile handsets.

•         In a ringing endorsement of INSIDE’s leadership in NFC technology, the top three handset makers – Nokia Growth Ventures, Motorola Ventures and Samsung Ventures America – each participated in INSIDE’s latest round of funding

The MicroRead NFC chip will be on display this week at the INSIDE Contactless booth #2E09 at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

INSIDE Contactless has a long played a leading role in NFC technology innovation, including the ownership of several essential NFC patents, and has been an active member of the NFC Forum since its first meeting.  The company was instrumental in developing the ETSI NFC standard, working with other industry leaders to co-author the specification, with the result that INSIDE now enjoys early implementation of this standard. Today, INSIDE’s MicroRead NFC solution is the only fully compliant NFC controller on the market.

INSIDE’s third-generation MicroRead RF chip, which was introduced on February 6, 2008, provides the broadest range of Near Field Communication (NFC) options that enable numerous new contactless applications.  Already in use by the major handset makers, the MicroRead suite combines third-generation silicon, a full set of interfaces, NFC software libraries and APIs, a field-proven reference design and robust standards support into a turnkey contactless reader solution.  When incorporated into cell phones, PDAs or PCs, MicroRead chips enable them to operate like RF readers and contactless smart cards or RFID tags.  Handset manufacturers, mobile operators, and third-party application developers can now offer applications that range from access control, to merchandise tracking and logistics, to revitalizing legacy Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) applications.  MicroRead products are unique in that they are self-powered with a battery-off mode, and they include the company’s innovative multi-host router technology, which allows secure elements, such as SIM, SE, or SD cards to be incorporated into applications.