This article was originally published by RFID Update.
February 22, 2005—Almost a year after the introduction last March, Nokia has commercially released an RFID reader-equipped shell for its rugged 5140 model cell phone. Dubbed the Nokia Mobile RFID Kit, the kit is essentially a separate device that attaches to the phone, giving it the ability to read data from RFID tags at close proximity. The Finnish cell phone manufacturer is targeting the device at enterprises that deploy field workers, such as those in the security, services, utilities, and health care industries. The idea is that field workers will use the phone to send and receive information encoded on tagged objects, which can then be acted upon or processed accordingly.
The RFID Kit uses Near Field Communication, or NFC, an RFID-based technology around which Nokia, Sony, and Philips founded the NFC Forum to develop and promote it as an enabler of M-Commerce. From the NFC Forum website: “NFC technology for short-range wireless connectivity will allow users to access content and services, transact payments and store tickets on their smart phones, PDAs and other consumer electronics by just holding NFC-enabled devices next to each other.”
Coincidentally, the NFC Forum today announced that more than 20 worldwide companies have joined the effort, including MasterCard, Visa, Microsoft, Motorola, NEC, Texas Instruments and Samsung.
ZDNet UK has more