Twinlinx MyMax brings Near Field Communication to Windows Mobile phones

Twinlinx a leading provider of innovative Near Field Communication technology has announced that following a recent cooperation with Microsoft France, its MyMax NFC sticker is now running with the new Windows phone planned for release on October 6th this year. The development also ensures backwards compatibility with the earlier Windows mobile 6.1 version.

My-Max is a thin electronic sticker designed to add contactless NFC communication capability to existing mobile phones. It uses bluetooth communication to connect to the phone and integrates an internal rechargeable battery to get power independent of the phone battery.

My-Max offers 3 different operating modes:

1. Passive: In this mode My-Max behaves as a multichip contactless card. Any contactless chip(s) can be put in the sticker to make it compatible with existing applications and provide multi-application capability.

2. Internal: In this mode, My-Max has to be switched on. It allows to establish communication between the mobile phone and the stickers internal flash memory and internal contactless chips.

3. Reader: In this mode, My-Max has to be switched. It behaves as a contactless reader able to read external cards/tags and either store received data in the flash memory or transmit it to the phone through bluetooth interface. It can also communicate with another My-Max sticker.

Around 300 phone connections are possible with fully recharged battery. For card-like operation no battery is needed, but when the battery is required it can be recharged using an integrated photovoltaic cell in as little as 20 minutes.  Because the sticker communicates with the phone via bluetooth a Low Battery alert for the sticker can be displayed on the screen of the phone.

The sticker can last around 2 years.

“NFC has attracted a great deal of interest over the last few years with many pilots being run throughout the world, however the market adoption is not moving due to the lack of NFC phones and mature applications, even if we believe the forecasts of 20% penetration by 2012-2013, it will not be sufficient for a mass roll-out” said Steve Lewis, Twinlinx VP marketing.

“We are delighted to work with Microsoft to extend the use of MyMax with the new Windows phone release” said Jacek Kowalski Twinlinx founder and CEO “One of the major advantages of developing applications with Windows phone is the uniformity across different phone platforms, it means that we can now offer the MyMax NFC solution to over 35 million existing Windows phone users and also give assurance to phone manufacturers and MNO’s that their new models supporting Windows phone will have an NFC ready solution.”

“We are very excited to have the opportunity to partner with Twinlinx on such an innovative and smart technology as MyMax”, says Nicolas Petit, Director, Mobile Communications Division at Microsoft France. “By introducing an easy way to turn each and every Windows Mobile powered phone into a full-fledged NFC-enabled device, MyMax brings to the mass market and corporations a unique solution to fully benefit from NFC applications, while relying on a consistent mobile software Microsoft platform. This technology will increase even further the possibilities offered by your Windows phone.”

At present Near Field Communication is most often used for small transactions such as using public transport or vending machines, but holds the potential for completely replacing credit and debit cards.

Read more about the NFC stickers at  www.twinlinx.com

See the technology in action in this French video below: