The NFC Forum (http://www.nfc-forum.org), a non-profit industry association that advances the use of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, today announced the winners of the NFC Forum Global Competition 2009 (http://www.nfc-forum.org/competition). The winning entries were named at an awards ceremony held last night at WIMA in Monaco (http://www.wima-nfc.com).

In the competition, developers in a Commercial Track vied for the honor of having their solutions named “The Best NFC Service of the Year 2009,“ while a Research Track recognized “The Most Innovative NFC Research Project of the Year 2009.“ First-, second-, and third-place winners in each track were chosen by a jury composed of senior professionals and recognized experts from academia and sponsoring companies.

The winners were selected from 20 finalists, who were selected earlier from 52 entries from 21 countries and four continents. The competition finalists demonstrated their entries at the Global NFC Business & Technical Developers Summit taking place this week at WIMA. Winners in each track were awarded cash prizes. First-place winners received 5000 euros, second-place 1500 euros, and third-place 1000 euros.

The first-place winner in the Commercial Track is Interactive Research & Development of Pakistan, for "Interactive Alerts for Childhood Pneumonia," which is a real-time patient tracking and referral system for use in low-resource settings. The system is currently being used for a pneumonia surveillance study in young children in Karachi, Pakistan.

The first-place winner in the Research Track is VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, for "Hot in the City," a mobile social media service that uses NFC-enabled mobile phones as a friend connection platform.

The second-place winner in the Commercial Track is Servtag of Germany, for "Friendticker.com," an NFC-based mobile social ticker that allows users to share their actual locations with friends by touching Friendticker NFC stickers in restaurants and bars. Third place goes to Nordea of Finland for its NFC-based strong end-user authentication solution for online banking, which enables secure access to an online banking site via an NFC-enabled handsets and a dual-interface bank card.

In the Research Track, the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), Faculty of Electrical Engineering is awarded second place for "Touch to Communicate," which allows a consumer who has difficulty communicating to manage phone calls with a simple touch between a mobile device and passive electronic tags. The third-place prize goes to ETH Zurich of Switzerland for the "APriori" NFC-based mobile application, which supports consumer purchasing decisions by interacting with tagged products to deliver point-of-sale product ratings.

The competition’s goal is to promote the development and deployment of innovative and exemplary NFC services. The Commercial Track is for business ideas that address a specific market, business, or consumer need or want. The Research Track is open to the academic community, including university student teams and institutions.

For both commercial and research developers, the NFC Forum Global Competition is more than just an opportunity to win an award. Finalists and winners may look forward to global media coverage, increased awareness among attending industry leaders and venture capitalists, and opportunities to forge partnerships and share ideas.

Nokia and WIMA are Platinum sponsors of the competition. Silver sponsors are INSIDE Contactless and Stollmann E+V GmbH. Equipment sponsors are Over-C and ViVOtech.

About Nokia

Nokia is the world leader in mobility, driving the transformation and growth of the converging Internet and communications industries. We make a wide range of mobile devices with services and software that enable people to experience music, navigation, video, television, imaging, games, business mobility, and more. Developing and growing our offering of consumer Internet services, as well as our enterprise solutions and software, is a key area of focus. We also provide equipment, solutions, and services for communications networks through Nokia Siemens Networks.

About WIMA

WIMA is a Conference and Exhibition based in Monaco, presenting the 3rd NFC Business & Technical Developers Summit from April 22 to 24, 2009. WIMA is hosting the NFC Forum Global Competition Finals & Awards Ceremony on April 23. WIMA is the fastest growing industry event for the NFC community, covering all aspects of the business, technical, and developer chain for both established players and newcomers to the technology. For more information: http://www.wima-nfc.com or contact Joanna Merchie: j.merchie@wima.mc.

About INSIDE Contactless

INSIDE Contactless is the global leader in open-standard contactless payment and Near Field Communication (NFC) semiconductors and software that power the next generation of payment, transit, identity, and access control applications. The company’s intelligent, microprocessor-based platforms offer the flexibility to be embedded in smart cards, mobile phones and other consumer electronic devices, documents, badges, and other items to support a wide range of innovative contactless applications and bring new levels of convenience to users. INSIDE has delivered more than 300 million contactless platforms worldwide to customers and partners. INSIDE is headquartered in Aix-en-Provence, France. For more information, please visit http://www.insidecontactless.com.

About Stollmann E+V GmbH

Stollmann, http://ww.stollmann.de, based in Hamburg, Germany, is one of the leading developers and suppliers of standard products and licensed products for communications technologies such as NFC, Bluetooth, Cable, and ISDN. Stollmann's team of 44 specialists develops protocol stacks, reference designs, and modules. Stollmann provides an NFC upper layer stack and JSR-257 API for mobile phones, PDAs, and smart phones, an NFC API for embedded devices, and an NFC evaluation kit, featuring an easy-to-use interface, USB reader, and NFC tags, all complying with the most recent NFC Forum standards.

About Over-C

Over-C is the leading Near Field Communication software company focused on the management of tag events, from tag scan through the back office. Over-C’s hosted solutions help companies get the right data to the right person at the right time. For more information on how your company can be Safe in the Knowledge, visit the Over-C Web site: www.over-c.com.

About ViVOtech

ViVOtech (www.vivotech.com) is the market leader in Near Field Communication (NFC) mobile payments, promotions and Over the Air (OTA) provisioning infrastructure software, transaction management software, NFC smart posters, and contactless terminals. These innovative solutions allow millions of consumers to make contactless payments with radio frequency-enabled credit/debit cards, fobs and NFC mobile phones. ViVOtech's products are used by the most prominent retailers all over the globe and today the company has shipped over 470,000 contactless terminals to more than 35 countries worldwide. In 2009 ViVOtech received the prestigious Frost and Sullivan North American Smart Cards Product Line Strategy of the Year Award.

About Near Field Communication Technology

Near Field Communication (NFC) is a standards-based, short-range wireless connectivity technology that enables simple and safe two-way interactions between electronic devices. NFC technology allows consumers to perform contactless transactions, access digital content, and connect devices with the simplicity of a single touch.

Near Field Communication (NFC) technology provides global interoperability of contactless identification and interconnection technologies. NFC operates in the 13.56 MHz frequency range, over a typical distance of a few centimeters. The underlying layers of NFC technology are based on ISO, ECMA, and ETSI standards. 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, 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 150 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: HP, Innovision Research & Technology plc, INSIDE Contactless, MasterCard Worldwide, Microsoft Corp., NEC, Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, Inc., NXP Semiconductors, Panasonic, Renesas Technology, Samsung, Sony Corporation, STMicroelectronics, and Visa Inc.

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