Research In Motion (RIM) announced this week that it has been selected by EnStream LP, a joint venture of Bell Mobility Inc., Rogers Wireless Partnership and Telus Communications Company, to provide its Secure Element Manager (SEM) to manage credentials on wireless handsets in Canada that support Near Field Communication (NFC) services.
According to a release from RIM, NFC is the technology that can make secure, convenient and contactless mobile payments a reality for Canadian wireless handset users.
RIM's SEM is designed to securely manage credentials on SIM (subscriber identity module) cards installed in all types of mobile devices including BlackBerry smartphones, Android devices, and Windows phones.
Jeff Orr, senior practice direction with market intelligence firm ABI Research, recently predicted that one in four smartphones shipped worldwide in 2013 is expected to include NFC technology.
"With an additional 5 million NFC-enabled smartphones shipping to Canada next year and upwards of 65 million over the next five years, consumers will increasingly turn to mobile payments instead of a separate debit or credit card," he said.