Strategies for NXP to sustain leadership position in NFC semiconductor provider market

Abstract

NFC (Near field communication) is a short range wireless technology that has been developed by Philips Electronics and Sony Corp in 2004. As can be inferred from the name, NFC is a connectivity technology that allows interconnection among devices within a range of about 10 centimeters. Quick and simple operations together with a high security make this technology suitable for secured communications like monetary transactions, private data collection, and ticketing and generic information exchanges. NFC s main advantage is its intrinsic security level, ensured by the limited communication range of the technology that, together with a single P2P (Peer to peer) connection, will limit any interception possibilities. On top of the intrinsic security, NFC technology supports advanced cryptography, which makes NFC-based systems suitable for financial and other kinds of secure transactions. The market driver for NFC technology is, and still will continue to be, mobile handsets, where the technology is expected to be integrated soon on a wide scale, reaching about 1.7 billion NFC enabled units by the 2018 time frame.