MemorandumOfIntent
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Sony and Global HID to unify FeliCa and NFC laptop reader technologies
Sony and Global HID are coyly batting their eyelashes at each other over a memorandum of intent to jointly develop an embedded contactless smart card reader platform for laptops. The idea is to create a single reader compatible with Sony's popular FeliCa solution in Japan as well as NFC, HID Global's own iCLASS, and more. As a refresher, about 315 million FeliCa cards are in circulation worldwide with another 67 million FeliCa-capable mobile phones in Japan used for electronic payments, access, interactive advertising, and membership rewards systems. Hell, Sony's even got a FeliCa reading remote control. The dark arts of Near Field Communication have been given a boost recently with support from Nokia and the US carriers AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. Even Apple is rumored to be getting in on the action. So let's ink a contract already fellas, anything that will unify all these "standards" into a common embedded laptop reader sounds like a good idea to us.