NXP, Qualcomm to bring 'Apply Pay' to Android phones

Android phones will soon feature secure NFC mobile transactions just like Apply Pay.

NXP Semiconductors N.V., who worked with Apple on Apple Pay, has just picked up Qualcomm as its mobile chip partner. The two companies announced Tuesday (May 5) they will work together to bring NXP's market-proven NFC and secure element technology onto Qualcomm's Snapdragon platform.

The collaboration between the two will go beyond mobile payment applications for smartphones. They plan to develop new reference designs to expand the reach of NFC into other applications—including "Wearables, Internet of Things/Everything, automotive," explained Jeff Fonseca, regional sales director, Americas NXP.

The partnership deal is not exclusive to Qualcomm, according to NXP. The two companies, however, declined to elaborate on the deal—including its financial terms.

Turn-key solution

Asked why Qualcomm decided to partner with NXP, instead of developing its own NFC and secure element solutions, Neeraj Bhatia, director of product management, Qualcomm, cited NXP's clear leadership position on the NFC market and the influence it has over the mobile-device and infrastructure side of the payment business. "We've been looking for a secure element partner for a while."

The Qualcomm executive also added, "By joining our hands, we think we can pull together the ecosystem [for NFC and mobile payments] much faster."

As NXP's Fonseca noted, the biggest advantage NXP brings is its "pre-validated and integrated" secure solution—already broadly used in the commercial market, including mobile payment and transit card apps. "Hardware is done, software is completely tested and validated," said Fonseca. "This is a turn-key solution."

That's precisely why NXP-Qualcomm solutions are expected to excite a global base of Android phone designers. These vendors have been, reportedly, eager to add mobile payment features, but they have neither time nor resources to develop their own, let alone undertake the elaborate validation process, a prerequisite to ensure that their mobile devices work properly with the payment infrastructure.

Just last week, during the earning's call, NXP CEO Richard Clemmer discussed with analysts Apple Pay's potentially huge impact, "especially in China." Clemmer predicted that "just how successful Apple Pay is in China" will set the tone, because "all the other smartphone companies have to be in a position to offer the same capability."

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