Integration of wireless technologies at the chip level has long been the goal of every semiconductor company, particularly those that offer communications solutions such as 802.11, Bluetooth, FM, and GPS. The most successful companies have all invested in developing single-chip products – so-called “combo chips” – that offer all-in-one solutions for system manufacturers and OEMs.
Typically, most wireless chip solutions currently on the market integrate WiFi, Bluetooth, FM, and sometimes GPS into a single chip using some shared resources and RF front ends. Chip level integration can reduce costs and optimize board real estate for the OEM.
Texas Instruments recently raised the bar for wireless integration with its release of the Wilink 8.0 platform. TI has added Near Field Communication (NFC) to the mix, along with WiFi (offering the choice of either SISO or MIMO and both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands), GNSS (both GPS and GLONASS augmented by a positioning engine that can be assisted by the other on-board wireless technologies), FM, Ant+ for sensor communication, and Bluetooth 4.0.
The main takeaway from this latest offering is TI's inclusion of NFC in the chip, obviously hedging its bets that NFC will become a ubiquitous feature of smartphones and tablets in the near future. It is still unclear whether this technology can be the panacea for simple and secure electronic payments, personal information transfer, and media delivery all on its own.
Google has made its position clear that NFC will play a major role in the Android platform. In 2011, Google and Samsung developed the Nexus S, which has NFC capability. Never mind that few North American retailers even accept NFC payments via smartphone.
The Wall Street Journal reports that a collaboration of retailers including Wal-Mart and Target are discussing how an NFC payment ecosystem could operate. The big retailers would like to keep control of transactions looking to lock out traditional financial institutions or at the very least keep transaction costs down through increased competition.
The advantage currently rests with the established financial institutions behind credit cards and debit cards, and companies like Google and PayPal who already have a foothold in online transactions. Unfortunately for the future of NFC, the involvement of the retailers may create too much fragmentation of NFC payment systems hindering rather than encouraging development. In other words, multiple standards and systems lead to confusion, and consumers may adopt a wait-and-see attitude.
Some argue that an NFC payment system via smartphone will become irresistible to users and retailers once Apple releases a phone that includes the technology. Many speculate that the next iteration of the iPhone will include NFC, but what isn't known is how Apple will integrate the technology into its already highly evolved ecosystem. Patently Apple reports that Apple has recently been granted a patent that suggests support of iWallet and an NFC enabled iPhone. It also sheds some light on how Apple could develop a wireless payment system utilizing iTunes. History has shown that Apple is very good at it legions of followers from their money. Will Apple worsen the fragmentation, or will it set the standard and thin out the field? Time will tell.
The trend toward integration of NFC into wireless combo chips is expected to continue. If popular brands like Apple and Samsung adopt the technology and major retailers offer the wireless payment system, semiconductor manufacturers need to integrate to compete for design wins. TI is first out of the gate, but there will be other horses in this race.