Nokia Gets Mobile Deal Happy
Written by Evan Schuman Nokia, the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer, is certainly in a deal-happy mode. On Tuesday (June 27), it announced a deal with Giesecke &
Devrient, the world?s second largest producer of smart cards, to form a company that will ” provide services to the NFC ecosystem by enabling consumer applications, such as credit cards or transport tickets, to be securely and easily downloaded over-the-air to NFC enabled mobile devices.”
Tuesday also saw Nokia announce the first NFC Mobile Payment Field Trial in China at Xiamen City, Fujian Province, China. The consumers will use the NFC enabled Nokia 3220 mobile phones to make mobile payment through any point-of-sales covered by Xiamen E-Tong Card, including locations such as on the public transportation buses, ferry boats or at restaurants, movie theaters in Xiamen City.
While this is all going on, Nokia is trying to finalize a deal with Siemens for a $30 billion telecom merger. To free up a little space on its plate, Nokia last week confirmed that it is abandoning its plan for a joint venture with Sanyo Electric Co. on mobile phones using CDMA technology, saying the market for this type of cellphone had become tougher still since the venture was announced in February.