SD Association and Near Field Communication Forum Sign Collaboration Agreement
San Ramon, Calif. (PRWEB) February 04, 2014 -- The SD Association (SDA), a global ecosystem of companies setting industry-leading memory card standards, and the NFC Forum, a non-profit industry association that advances the use of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, today announced a formal Memorandum of Understanding that will enable the two organizations to jointly educate the market and help build the ecosystem for NFC among users of smartSD memory cards.
The SDA will work with NFC Forum Special Interest Groups to educate and promote adoption of NFC in conjunction with smartSD memory cards to target vertical markets including consumer electronics, mobile payment, retail, transport and health care. Some of the joint activities under consideration include workshops for target vertical markets, white papers, case studies, consumer research, webcasts, and hosted events or trade shows that demonstrate the business and consumer benefits of using NFC and smartSD memory cards together.
"The NFC Forum is committed to making NFC accessible to more consumers and providing them with greater freedom of choice," said Koichi Tagawa, NFC Forum Chairman. "This collaboration furthers these goals, enabling us to join together with the SDA to inform and inspire businesses to develop and deliver new and exciting products and services for consumers worldwide."
"The NFC Forum has created a powerful and intuitive communication method, and when we leverage the high consumer awareness, value and use of SD memory cards, more businesses and consumers will reap the benefits," said Brian Kumagai, president of the SD Association. "Together NFC and SD will add ease and convenience to the daily lives of people everywhere and provide new business opportunities to content and service providers."
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, health care, 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 smartSD Technology
With smartSD (http://bit.ly/MmU9CI) technology, service providers gain a new way to differentiate their offerings with unique value‐added services, addressing customers of any mobile network operators, device manufacturers and proprietary app stores. smartSD technology allows for a Secure Element on microSD memory cards to provide authentication services, moving control of consumers’ service applications from the service provider to the consumer. Service providers can manage the life cycle of their Secure Element using the same business process used today for other smart cards and credit cards, while mobile network operators gain a new option to support their value added services. smartSD memory cards can be purchased by, or issued to, consumers from any service provider including banks, credit card companies, retailers, transportation providers and governments. The smartSD white paper (http://bit.ly/1aDvOUa) provides greater insight into the benefits and opportunities.
About the NFC Forum
The NFC Forum (http://www.nfc-forum.org) 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 190 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: Broadcom Corporation, Google, Inc., Intel, MasterCard Worldwide, NEC, Nokia, NXP Semiconductors, Qualcomm, Renesas Electronics Corporation, Samsung, Sony Corporation, STMicroelectronics, and Visa Inc.
SD Association
The SD Association is a global ecosystem of more than 1,000 technology companies charged with setting interoperable SD standards. The Association encourages the development of consumer electronic, wireless communication, digital imaging and networking products that utilize market-leading SD technology. The SD standard is the number one choice for consumers and has earned more than 80 percent of the memory card market with its reliable interoperability and its easy-to-use format. Today, mobile phones, Blu-ray players, HDTVs, audio players, automotive multimedia systems, handheld PCs, digital cameras and digital video cameras feature SD interoperability. For more information about SDA or to join, please visit the Association’s web site, http://www.sdcard.org.
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Alisa Pfeil, SD Association, http://www.sdcard.org, +1 (775) 720-5071, [email protected]
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