Jan. 12, 2012, 10:22 a.m. EST
INSIDE Secure, Kovio, and ViVOtech Demonstrate Products in Booth #1951, ARTS Pavilion
WAKEFIELD, Mass., Jan 12, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- The NFC Forum today announced that three of its members -- INSIDE Secure, Kovio, and ViVOtech -- are demonstrating applications that will change the way consumers with NFC-enabled mobile phones interact with the retail community. The NFC Forum is a non-profit industry association that advances the use of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, which gives retailers and manufacturers unique one-to-one marketing and loyalty-building opportunities at the point of sale and throughout the retail environment.
NFC technology is sparking a wide variety of innovations in retail, as well as areas such as access control, gaming, healthcare and wellness, hospitality, loyalty, marketing, mobile payment, mobile social media, and pairing of consumer electronics devices. The demonstrations highlight the broad range of NFC use cases that specifically benefit retailers, and they are being held in Booth #1951 of the ARTS Pavilion at the Annual Convention and Expo of the National Retail Federation (NRF) taking place at the Jacob Javits Center in New York.
INSIDE Secure, a Sponsor Member of the NFC Forum, with a seat on the Board of Directors, will demonstrate a product authentications service for the retail world. Kovio Inc., an Associate Member, will show how its NFC products and services will enable a completely new paradigm in the consumer's direct interaction with brands and retailers by enabling personalized, instantaneous, and contextual experiences at point of purchase and point of use. Kovio will also demonstrate the integration of its NFC products in item-level product packaging for shopper marketing, location-based advertising, and brand authentication. ViVOtech, Inc., an Associate member, will show its mobile marketing software platform, ViVOtouch, which allows merchants to deliver personalized offers, content, loyalty and prepaid cards in real time to shoppers' mobile phones. Offers and loyalty rewards can be redeemed with a single tap along with payment at a contactless point-of-sale terminal, redeemed visually via bar codes and coupon codes, or in the cloud. The personalized content is based on location, time, context, and user profile, helping drive consumers' behavior throughout their paths to purchase.
"NFC technology is an enhancement to the payment experience that finally brings direct benefits to the retailer and the consumer alike," said Debbie Arnold, NFC Forum Director. "Our NFC Forum member solutions are at the vanguard of this revolution, and we look forward to sharing them with NRF attendees."
"NFC is a backbone of mobile innovation in retail," said Richard Mader, Executive Director of the NRF's Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS). "We are very pleased that select NFC Forum members will be demonstrating ground-breaking mobile applications in the ARTS Pavilion that have the potential to revolutionize interactions between consumers and retailers."
About Near Field Communication Technology
NFC technology makes life easier and more convenient for consumers around the world by making it simpler to make transactions, exchange digital content, and connect electronic devices with a touch.
A standards-based connectivity technology, NFC harmonizes today's diverse contactless technologies, enabling current and future solutions in areas such as access control, consumer electronics, healthcare, information collection and exchange, loyalty and coupons, payments, and transport.
NFC technology is supported by the world's leading communication device manufacturers, semiconductor producers, network operators, IT and services companies, and financial services organizations. NFC is compatible with hundreds of millions of contactless cards and readers already deployed worldwide.
About the NFC Forum
The NFC Forum was launched as a non-profit industry association in 2004 by leading mobile communications, semiconductor, and consumer electronics companies. The Forum's mission is to advance the use of Near Field Communication technology by developing specifications, ensuring interoperability among devices and services, and educating the market about NFC technology. The Forum's 160+ global member companies currently are developing specifications for a modular NFC device architecture, and protocols for interoperable data exchange and device-independent service delivery, device discovery, and device capability.
The NFC Forum's Sponsor members, which hold seats on the Board of Directors, include leading players in key industries around the world. The Sponsor members are: Barclaycard, Broadcom Corporation, INSIDE Secure, Intel, MasterCard Worldwide, Microsoft Corp., NEC, Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, Inc., NXP Semiconductors, Renesas Electronics Corporation, Samsung, Sony Corporation, STMicroelectronics, and Visa Inc.
SOURCE: NFC Forum