ZTE and semiconductor company NXP have announced a deal that will see the latter’s NFC technology incorporated into the former’s handsets.
ZTE will include NXP’s PN544 NFC chip into its portfolio of Android based smartphones and feature phones.
“We have seen enormous growth in our year-on-year handset shipments in Europe and the US and selected NXP as our partner because they are the market leader and their solution enabled us to reliably go to market in record time,” said Zeng Zhaoxiang, ZTE’s vice president in a press statement. “Consumers are ready for NFC and we look forward to leveraging NXP’S expertise in this market.”
Research from IDC put ZTE as the world’s number four handset manufacturer last year, with steady growth in both emerging markets such as China and developed markets like the US and Western Europe.
Interest in NFC has been growing due to software drivers for the technology being included in Android’s latest 2.3 Gingerbread OS and its popularity in Japan and Korea.
The NFC equipped handsets are expected to hit the market in Q2 this year.
NXP has meanwhile announced its NFC technology will be included in the upcoming Gingerbread release of Android.
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