OTI COPNI wave - mobile NFC plug-in module

OTI has demonstrated impressive out-of-the box thinking with this NFC plug-in module for mobile devices. Basically, if your phone has an audio stereo jack, you can have mobile NFC.

Now the only questions are: which mobile OSes will OTI support, and will the API be open?

If only a few mobile OSes are supported within the first year (or two), then the API had better be open... A closed API would mean that freelance/community developers won't be able to fill the software gap for this device and some will opt for creating competing - and most likely open-source - solutions. This has already happened with mobile phones. Furthermore, integrated chips containing NFC controller+secure element are becoming readily available, as are NFC software libraries, so the entry threshold to the market is clearly not high.

SWP-enabled SIM cards

SWP support is slowly becoming more widespread among mobile phone vendors, but there are almost no NFC-enabled SWP UICCs to be found. Gemalto has come up with their own SWP&NFC UICC prototype for a pilot study in Singapore. Note that WatchData (SIMPass) and Bladox (Waver) have been doing similar product development but without the SWP functionality. In fact, WatchData argues that SWP is overrated and unattractive for handset vendors.

I think Bladox will be - for the near future - a better choice than Gemalto from the viewpoint of small startups who are looking to source NFC-enabled SIM cards.

Edit 2011-01-05:
On Track Innovations now also offers an NFC-enabled SIM+antenna. No other information e.g. SWP support.