What’s interesting is that when you sign up for an invite, the site asks what kind of device you use: Android, iPhone or other. It’s unclear what that means for Google Wallet, which up until now has been based on near-field communication for mobile payments. NFC payments require a chip inside devices to complete tap-and-go transactions.

It could mean that Google may be pursuing a more cloud-based approach to payments that doesn’t require NFC for transactions. Or Google Wallet could integrate with Apple’s Passbook or evolve to support QR codes or 2D barcodes, which is how Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts handle mobile payments. Or it could just mean Google wants to know how many iPhone users are interested in Google Wallet. Currently, the iPhone doesn’t support NFC and Apple decided to keep the technology out of the iPhone 5, dealing a symbolic blow to the short-range wireless technology.

The reliance on NFC has been problematic for Google Wallet, which launched a year ago but has only been able to get support on select Sprint and Virgin Mobile devices. On Monday, Google announced it is now expanding support to Galaxy S III devices on MetroPCS. Google has had little luck in getting support on phones running on Verizon,  AT&T and T-Mobile, which on Monday finally launched a competing mobile payment system called Isis that also relies on NFC. Google may finally get Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile to allow Google Wallet on their phones but it’s unclear when that will happen.

Google’s VP of Wallet & Payments Osama Bedier, reiterated his support for NFC last week saying it was still easier to use than QR codes. He predicted that NFC will grow in popularity in the coming years and “NFC chips will replace bar codes.”

So there are not a lot of answers right now but it makes sense for Google to try some new approaches. In August, it also opened up Google Wallet to allow any card to work with the payment system. But it still faces challenges in Wallet adoption, even on existing Android phones. I’m not sure what iPhone support would look like but any additional momentum for Google Wallet would be welcome at this point.

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UPDATE: ViVOtech provided a statement to us saying that the company is not shutting down but is preparing to sell its reader business as it goes through a restructuring. Take a look:

ViVOtech’s  business fundamentals are strong and orders and contracts are building in both its reader and software businesses. Over the last six months the company has been executing a strategy to divest its reader business to a qualified buyer. This sale has moved slower than anticipated. ViVOtech has not ceased operations but is in the process of restructuring operations and has reduced its team to a smaller group with the goals of maintaining customer relationship and core contract work, and to address our supplier relationships and commitments,  as the company completes plans to divest the reader business and focus on the Software Business. ViVOtech is in dialog with its customers and suppliers on the current situation but will be no making no other public statements.

(Original story follows)If true, it would be a pretty stunning end to a company that has tied its success to the adoption of NFC. The company has reportedly raised up $96 million to date and was looking at an IPO as early as this year. The most recent funding came in March, when it took on more than $20 million. We’ve reached out to ViVOtech for comment.

ViVOTech is reportedly looking at selling its reader business PAX Global Technology, a Chinese POS terminal maker, the NFC Times said. ViVOtech is also looking to unload its software business, which includes mobile wallets services and its trusted service manager unit.

The Santa Clara, CA company was founded in 2001 on the promise of NFC technology changing the way people pay and interact. But the market for NFC has taken a long time to take shape and has only recently started to gain momentum, thanks to payment projects like Google Wallet, which off to a slow start last year, and the upcoming Isis joint venture from AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. ViVOtech was a partner in both of those payment ventures.

It appears that ViVOtech burned through too much cash waiting for NFC payments to materialize. The company had said it would be profitable this year. To date, ViVOtech has shipped about 1 million NFC readers and was operating in more than 30 countries. But it faced a lot of competition from VeriFone, which sells contactless terminals to more than 70 percent of the top retailers in the U.S. VeriFone previously used ViVOtech as a supplier but ended the relationship.

A closure by ViVOtech doesn’t mean the NFC payment market is doomed. But it highlights some of the challenges involved. It’s built on the idea of people paying with the tap of their NFC-enabled smartphone. But the ecosystems, support and hardware adoption needed to pull that off has proven very complicated. And for many consumers and merchants, it’s not quite clear why NFC payments are so much more superior to cash and credit cards. ViVOtech was also trying to transition beyond just facilitating payments by moving into offers and loyalty. That’s seems to be a recognition that the transaction itself isn’t so interesting or lucrative. The battleground is really in the value-added services.

NFC may well turn out to be a winner at some point. But it will likely take a long time to find mainstream acceptance, something companies in this market will need to factor in if they want to succeed.

Disclosure: ViVOtech is backed by Alloy Ventures, which is also an investor in the Giga Omni Media network, the parent company of GigaOM. 

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Mobile payments made through near field communications technology are still waiting to become a mainstream tool for consumers, but momentum keeps building for NFC, which may be looking at a break-out moment next year. Yes, that’s a line that’s been repeated in recent years, but the pieces keep falling into place. The latest news comes from MasterCard and Deutsche Telekom, which announced a partnership today that will bring NFC contactless payments to DT’s 93 million mobile customers in Europe.

The mobile payments system will incorporate a SIM-based chip and will work with a mobile wallet. It will roll out first in Poland while in Germany, DT and MasterCard will start with a trial using NFC stickers and cards this year before a launch in the first half of next year. Eventually, the service will spread out across DT’s European footprint. The mobile wallet service will also be open to other banks and partners, who will be able to access the wallet.

DT is helping take the lead on NFC payments by “becoming a credit card issuer for MasterCard” and “acting as a sales partner for NFC enabled Point of Sale terminals,” said Angel Dobardziev and Eden Zoller, analysts at Ovum in a research note. The carrier is also providing NFC tags for consumers who don’t have NFC-enabled hardware. DT hopes to make money through a share of transactions as well as rental fees. “The drive behind Deutsche Telekom’s mobile payments strategy is to create a comprehensive framework that will address many of the challenges in what is currently an incomplete ecosystem,” the analysts said.

Earlier this year, Vodafone partnered with Visa  in a bid to bring Vodafone-branded NFC payments to at least five European countries over the next year. The prepaid service would enable Vodafone to take a cut of transactions fees when users made purchases. Unlike the DT deal, Visa would be the issuer, so Vodafone would not need to get an e-money license. Telefonica UK launched an O2 Wallet in April and said it will be enabled for NFC later this year. And last week, French carrier Orange announced the launch of a SIM-based NFC payment system across France.

The carrier initiatives suggest that NFC may be finally ready to realize its potential. The operators are getting motivated by the idea that they can make some money through NFC transactions.

But the services still face a lot of the same challenges that have existed for a while. Merchants in many cases are still slow to adopt NFC-enabled terminals, which are needed to complete payments. Carrier-led payment initiatives will also face competition from other payment services, which could ultimately lead to confusion early on as consumers try to understand which system is right for them. Consumers will also need to be pursuaded that paying with a tap of the phone makes more sense than using cash or credit, which are still very easy to use. A lot will depend on the additional services these wallets provide such as deals and offers.

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Samsung is rolling out Samsung TecTiles, which can be programmed to do about 25 tasks, from changing phone settings or making a call or text to joining a Wi-Fi network, opening an app or web page or posting an update or tweet. Users who tap the back of their phone against a TecTile tag could also do an check-in at a location or they could open a map, swap business contact information or “like” something. The tags, which will be sold by all four major U.S. carriers in packs of five for $14.99, will work with a free TecTile app, downloadable through Google Play. The app will allow users to program the NFC tags, which can be reprogrammed as many times as needed.

Now, there are programmable NFC tags on the market and apps such as NFC Task Launcher on the market. But few people are actually doing anything serious with programming NFC stickers, in part because there aren’t that many NFC-enabled phone available. But Samsung believes that with its latest crop of Samsung Galaxy S III phones, along with a handful of earlier NFC-equipped devices, it will have the biggest number of NFC-enabled devices in consumers’ hands, putting it in a place to help drive adoption of the technology.

“Everything has to start somewhere,” said Nick DeCarlo, Vice President of Product Planning at Samsung Mobile US. “We’re trying to teach the market to enable some of these behaviors in the future.”

I’m excited about this because it gives consumers a way to get educated about NFC. Often times, we talk about NFC in terms of payments, but TecTiles really show how NFC can work in a variety of non-payment settings. And the fact that users can actually program the tags themselves lets them get personal and creative with the technology. DeCarlo showed off some examples in a briefing including the ability to tap your phone while leaving your office to send a spouse a message alerting them you’re on your way. Others uses include tapping a phone to set an alarm or silence a phone heading into a meeting. All you need to do is set the task and program the sticker and it’s good to go, though you will want to label the sticker if you’re making the tag public.

I previously wrote about the ability for small businesses to use NFC tags to help enable social actions. SocialPassport, a New York company, has introduced NFC tags that can let people check-in, “like” a business or tweet out a message, sometimes in exchange for a discount or coupon. I think businesses could get a lot out of these tags, at the very least making it easy for people to check-in. That would give them some valuable data on who their customers and provides another channel to engage them with offers.

TecTiles will only work with Android devices, but it doesn’t have to be Samsung only. Other NFC-enabled Android devices will be able to use TecTiles. And DeCarlo said that Samsung is also looking at giving developers an API to add more tasks to the tags.

Here’s a list of the Samsung phones that can work with TecTiles:

• Samsung Galaxy S III on AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular and Verizon
• Samsung Galaxy S II on T-Mobile
• Galaxy Nexus  on Verizon, Sprint and GSM Unlocked
• Nexus S 4G on Sprint
• Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G on T-Mobile

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Isis — a mobile payment platform that utilizes near field communication (NFC) for contactless payments — is poised to be the main rival to Google Wallet, another NFC-payment service that launched in September. Isis has lagged behind Google Wallet but has secured some very important partnerships, locking up deals with the four main payment networks - Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover and hardware manufacturers HTC, LG, Motorola Mobility, RIM, Samsung Mobile and Sony. Now with three major financial institutions supporting it, Isis is showing again that while it’s behind in its rollout, it’s lining up important partners for its payment effort.

“Today’s announcement is testament to the vision and commitment of Chase, Capital One and Barclaycard to make mobile commerce a real and positive experience for their customers,” said Michael Abbott, CEO, Isis in a statement. “Mobile commerce is more than a new way to pay; it’s about extending the relationships consumers enjoy with their banks and merchants into a powerful and convenient new form factor.”

The banks will tailor their cardholder experience within the Isis wallet, which will contain payment, coupon and loyalty services. Isis is reportedly not taking a cut of the payment volume but is requiring rent from financial institutions to have their cards placed on the Isis wallet. There was some questions about whether banks would embrace this model but it looks like Isis has been able to persuade at least three major financial institutions to jump on board.

The first screen shot of the Isis mobile wallet was also released, showing what consumers can expect to see. It shows the ability to load up both payment and loyalty cards and includes a news feed and directory of merchants. Users will be able to “follow” participating merchants to receive discounts and offers. And they’ll be able to clip other offers from print, posters and online displays using QR codes. Isis will reportedly have as many as 1,000 merchant terminals supporting its launch this summer in Austin and Salt Lake City. The service will expand across the nation after the initial soft launch.

Isis has been interesting to watch because it is run by the two of biggest carriers in the U.S. That has led to what appears like a problem for Google, which has not been able to activate Google Wallet on its flagship Android product the Galaxy Nexus on Verizon. With an official launch coming for Isis, we will have to see if carriers such as Verizon enable Google Wallet and other NFC wallets once they are in a better place to compete with Isis.

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Let’s take them one by one.

I like the plaid, but do these PJs come in 4G?

Yes, we have all heard the myth of the connected refrigerator, but O’Hara promises we’ll see the world’s first pair of connected pajamas, embedded with sensors to monitor a child’s heart rate, breathing and other vitals. In fact, the GSMA’s Connected House exhibit this year will be full of mysterious wireless-embedded items including a singing robot from Korea Telecom and something called a “social media vending machine” from Vodafone.

The GSMA estimates there will be 24 billion connected devices by 2020, making embedded wireless – or machine-to-machine communications – a $1.2 trillion global industry. They won’t all be pajamas and robots, though. More likely they’ll be tablets and computing devices, TVs and other entertainment products, health and medical devices, and of course, cars.

This year, O’Hara and Warren predicted that the connected car would be a big source of conference chatter. MWC has whole tracks devoted to the topic, and Bill Ford, his namesake company’s executive chairman, will be delivering one of the keynote addresses. This year, the connected car discussion will move beyond the infotainment system and into the drive train. According to Warren, technologies are emerging that will allow cars to communicate with each other and the Internet to help make us better drivers, not just more entertained ones.

In addition, the technology we’ll see out of the newest concept vehicles is sure to impress even the most spec-obsessed gadget lover.

“The things we’re seeing today are what we’ll see in cars five years from now,” Warren said. “It’s not because the technology isn’t available today, but it’s because those are the design timelines of the automakers.” These aren’t cellphones that we change out every year.

Open up that mobile wallet

Near field communications is another sector with growth projections that boggle the mind. The GSMA projects that 1.5 billion handsets with NFC chips will be in the market by 2016, processing some $50 billion in transactions. The wireless industry is about to become a financial powerhouse, O’Hara said.

NFC payments also could become one of their more controversial topics at the show. The GSMA and many of its carrier members are promoting payment solutions that verify user identity via the phone’s SIM card. Meanwhile Google is promoting its own NFC solution Wallet, which bypasses the SIM and thus the operator. That conflict has already emerged in miniature in the U.S. as Verizon Wireless and Google have already banged heads over Wallet on the LTE version of the Galaxy Nexus. Google’s Eric Schmidt is delivering one of the major speeches at Mobile World Congress, so there’s potential for that conflict to escalate.

NFC won’t just be confined to payments. O’Hara said a lot of technologies will emerge at MWC that show how identity fused with ultra-short-range radio can be used in everything from electronic subway passes to concert ticketing. My colleague Ryan Kim has already written about the myriad of other uses for NFC, and we’ll likely see many of those alternatives emerge at MWC. NXP is hosting an NFC lounge where it will demo a motorcycle that can be started with your smartphone, peer-to-peer gaming through the NFC link, and even an app that allows you to summon your waiter and order food from your device while at a restaurant.

LTE is king, but Wi-Fi is getting all the attention

For the last several Congresses, operator after operator has taken the stage to announce their LTE rollout plans. At this year’s Congress many of those networks will finally have been built, making this year the show for the devices.

“It’s fair to say we have a feel for these things, and we’re expecting a slew of LTE announcements at the Congress,” O’Hara said.

But don’t expect LTE in absolutely everything, O’Hara cautioned. Many European operators are behind the LTE deployment, after the U.S. got to an early start, so they’re very much still focused on their HSPA networks. O’Hara said we’re likely to see a plethora of LTE dongles and Wi-Fi hotspots, but there will definitely be some high-end LTE smartphones.

While not every device will have the raw connection speed of LTE, we’ll see plenty of phones that skew toward raw processing power. LG has already revealed it will launch its first quad-core smartphone at MWC, using Nvidia’s Tegra 3 chip. Quad-core will still be a rarity, but dual-core devices are becoming almost the norm. Qualcomm expects that there will be several smartphones unveiled at MWC that utilize its integrated Snapdragon dual core processor and LTE modem, which has the additional “dual” benefits of driving down both cost and battery drain.

The GSMA and Wireless Intelligence now estimates there are 12.28 million LTE subscriptions in the world, though a disproportionate number, 7.69, are still in North America, primarily on Verizon’s network. The Asia-Pacific region comes in second with 3.71 million subs, while Europe is just starting to ramp up with 745,000 total LTE connections. In comparison there are 750 million HSPA connections globally. LTE may have a long way to go, but it’s getting there quickly. Wireless Intelligence says LTE subscribers are being added globally at a rate of 2 million a month.

At MWC we’ll likely see many European operators announce or detail already revealed LTE launch plans, but also expect the U.S. operators to be on hand to talk up their LTE plans, including T-Mobile USA, which just announced an ambitious plan to shut down most of its GSM networks to make room for LTE.

The dark horse candidate for show stealer is Wi-Fi. MWC is a cellular networking event , but so far much of the network technology buzz has been about unlicensed local area network technology and how it can be incorporated into operators’ 3G and 4G services. The jokes are already emerging about how MWC should be renamed the Mobile Wi-Fi Congress. The GSMA’s Warren, however, welcomes the development, saying Wi-Fi isn’t being positioned as a competitive technology to cellular, but rather one that is complimentary to HSPA and LTE.

If you’re attending the Congress you’ll have a lot of company. Last year, MWC attracted 60,000 delegates, and O’Hara said the GSMA’s registration logs show it is well on its way to breaking that record this year. There will be plenty for those delegates to see as well: 1,400 companies and organizations are exhibiting.

The conference outgrew the venerable Fira de Barcelona long ago, forcing exhibitors to spill out into the surrounding courtyards and streets. This year, many exhibitors are dealing with the lack of space by building up, not out, O’Hara said. So that’s one last thing to expect at MWC: we might see the first three-story booth.

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