NFC (Near Field Communication)

The Isis joint venture announced its first set of merchants for the planned trials of its NFC mobile wallet this summer in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Austin, Texas.

The list includes a handful of national brands, such as Dillard’s and Macy’s department store chains, as well as Foot Locker, Jamba Juice and clothing chain Aéropostale. That is in addition to a number of local establishments.

All told, Isis named a little more than 50 merchants, and it indicated more merchant announcements would come. But merchant locations will only number in the hundreds in the two cities when the pilots launch.

And that will include national chains that already accept contactless payment with locations in the cities, such as McDonald’s restaurants.

Samsung Electronics and NXP Semiconductors have confirmed that Samsung’s next flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S III, will sport an embedded secure chip, in addition to supporting applications on SIM cards.

The phone could be used for the Google Wallet, which requires an embedded chip in the United States, as well as for wallets planned by mobile operators, which would largely be anchored to SIM cards the telcos will issue, NXP confirmed. Visa Inc. and MasterCard Worldwide have already certified the phone to store their respective contactless applications on SIM cards, with approval of the phone with the embedded chip likely to follow.

But Samsung, which some analysts estimate was the largest supplier of smartphones and total handsets worldwide during the first quarter, could own the embedded chip itself in certain markets to enable payment and other applications from service providers–likely outside of the U.S.

The South Korea-based phone maker has built other Android phones, namely the Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus, for Google with embedded chips, but Google controls these chips for its wallet.

Biometric sensor specialist Authentec has introduced a new fingerprint verification sensor that has been specifically designed to protect access to NFC mobile wallets — and the first phones and tablets to include the product are expected to hit the market by the end of this year.

The AES2750 builds on Authentec's existing mobile phone fingerprint sensors, featured in a number of Japanese phones such as the Docomo Regza, built by Toshiba.

The device packs a 192 by 8 pixel fingerprint sensor array and support for both multiple encryption technologies and one time password (OTP) generation. Features include a new, flat package design, with a narrow Y-dimension and rounded edges. That means, Authentec says, it can be mounted "in narrow spaces or edges of smartphones and tablets as well as through-hole glass mounting for touchscreen-enabled mobile devices".

The AES2750 also includes the ability to interact directly with payment applications stored within an NFC secure element and provides direct NFC radio control, based on positive authentication of the user — ensuring that only the registered user of a device can gain access to the mobile wallet.

American Express and Isis have announced that AmEx plans to participate in the two large NFC pilots Isis plans to launch this summer in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Austin, Texas.

The plans by American Express to make its consumer and small business cards available for download to the Isis NFC mobile wallet is not surprising, since Isis announced last July that the AmEx network–along with those from the three other major U.S. payment brands, Visa, MasterCard Worldwide and Discover Financial Services–had agreed to accept payment from the wallet.

A spokeswoman for Isis said plans are still on track for Isis, the joint venture formed by major U.S. mobile carriers Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile, to launch in the two cities sometime this summer.

Phone maker HTC is displaying three high-end NFC phones at the International CTIA Wireless show in New Orleans, including its Droid Incredible 4G LTE, destined for U.S. carrier Verizon Wireless.

Taiwan-based HTC is also shipping the Evo 4G LTE to U.S. carrier Sprint with NFC inside, due on the market within weeks, as well as its One X, which made its U.S. debut with AT&T Sunday after launching in Europe last month.

The One X and Evo 4G LTE sport embedded secure chips that can be used for payment. MasterCard Worldwide has already certified the One X and its embedded chip to carry the payment network's contactless application, PayPass. That chip likely will be used in Europe, since AT&T is expected to use SIM cards to support its planned Isis wallet.