BlackBerrys dominate NFC phone market in UK
04 May, 2012
category: NFC
BlackBerry smart phones account for 80% of NFC-enabled phones in the UK, according to RIM senior director of sales and operations, Gerry Kelliher
“Eighty percent of mobile devices with NFC sold through retail in Q1 2012 were [Blackberry] NFC devices, compared to 72 percent in 2011,” Kelliher told The Inquirer. “We’ve shipped devices from last August compatible with NFC because we really felt that bringing that to market is something people can relate with.”
Kelliher added that RIM is committed to adding NFC to every new BlackBerry handset in order to cement its position as the frontrunner for NFC technology in the UK.
“If customers are interested in NFC in the UK they need to be looking at Blackberry,” he said. “We’re looking to put NFC in as many devices as possible.”
Kelliher also told The Inquirer that RIM is working closely with carriers and banks to launch mobile payments on the Blackberry line as soon as this year.
“Wireless payments [have] really taken off in the UK this year with Pingit peer to peer and O2 Wallet, so this is really accelerating,” he said.
Read more here.