First Result of a Partnership with INSIDE Contactless to Transform How People Interact With and Use Their Mobile Devices

Paris, France, Feb. 10, 2010–CONNECTHINGS, a pioneer in providing systems that deliver contextualized services and content based on location and time, today announced the first public demonstration of the Wave-Me™ NFC services platform will take place at the upcoming GSM Mobile World Congress being held in Barcelona, Spain February 15-18, 2010. The first result of a partnership with INSIDE Contactless, the Wave-Me NFC services platform is built upon CONNECTHINGS’ AdTag™ server and is designed to give near field communication (NFC) the intelligence it needs to enable a broad range of mobile services beyond payment and transit applications.

The demonstration will take place at the INSIDE Contactless booth (Stand 8B94) and provide a preview of a pilot project CONNECTHINGS is developing for the Office of Tourism in Marseille for providing visitors with electronic coupons for public transportation and entry to museums and other points of interest around the city. The Wave-Me client software in an NFC handset will trigger a back-end transaction on the AdTag server (visible on a PC monitor) when the handset is brought in close proximity to an NFC tag, connecting the associated e-coupon with the handset. When the handset is waved near the corresponding NFC tag at the merchant premises, it displays the coupon, providing proof to the merchant that payment has been made.

“The Wave-Me NFC services platform is very easy for even small merchants to take advantage of because it doesn’t require any special reader or other equipment at the point of sale, just the presence of the NFC tag to trigger the transaction on the handset,” said Laetitia Gazel Anthoine, founder and chief executive officer of CONNECTHINGS. “Beyond its easy deployment, our system can also provide comprehensive reporting and other management services to our customers for e-coupons, loyalty programs, information distribution and other unique applications.”

The Wave-Me NFC services platform offers an end-to-end solution carriers and third-party service providers can use to give subscribers easy access to a broad range of consumer services and applications through their mobile phones. It is a comprehensive platform that includes: Wave-Me mobile client software and the Wave-Me Service Engine; NFC tags; the AdTag server providing application distribution, contextualized content management, tag life cycle management and service management, including advertising management and reporting; and intelligent interface and communication modules between the Wave-Me mobile client, NFC tags and the AdTag server.

“The Wave-Me NFC services platform provides the critical infrastructure that will enable operators and service providers to transform how people interact with and use their mobile devices,” said Loic Hamon, vice president of marketing for NFC at INSIDE Contactless. “We are very excited to be able to provide a glimpse of the service-rich future for NFC with this demonstration.”

Wave-Me-enabled handsets will allow people to access relevant, profile-based services with a simple gesture. When “waved” near a corresponding Wave-Me NFC tag, the Wave-Me technology automatically simulates a complex series of keystrokes, eliminating awkward, time-consuming, multi-keystroke chores. Wave-Me tags could also contain relevant phone numbers or complex URLs to send SMS messages or send and retrieve information from web sites. Merchants and other businesses will be able to sponsor Wave-Me applications, with the possibility of displaying branding information not only on the tag, but also on the handset screen with accompanying sound or music. Museums and cities will be able to provide Wave-Me applications to their visitors, with the possibility of using NFC tags deployed in their environment to access services. These tags will provide quick access not only to a multimedia guide but also to added-value features like annotation and content sharing.

About INSIDE Contactless

INSIDE Contactless is the global leader in open-standard contactless payment and near field communication (NFC) semiconductors and software that power the next generation of payment, transit, identity and access control applications. The company’s intelligent, microprocessor-based platforms offer the flexibility to be embedded in smart cards, mobile phones and other consumer electronic devices, documents, badges and other items to support a wide range of innovative contactless applications and bring new levels of convenience to users. INSIDE has delivered more than 350 million contactless platforms worldwide to customers and partners that include many of the leading payment card and mobile phone manufacturers, systems integrators and financial institutions. With a portfolio of 60 families of patents, including several essential NFC patents, the company has played a leading role in NFC and contactless innovation. INSIDE is headquartered in Aix-en-Provence, France, with offices in Shanghai, Singapore, Warsaw, Seoul and Silicon Valley. For more information, please visit http://www.insidecontactless.com.

About CONNECTHINGS

Founded in 2007, CONNECTHINGS provides expertise in barcode technologies, NFC, GPS and location-based technologies, and is a pioneer in providing tags and contextualized–location- and time-based–content management systems. The company’s software solution, AdTag, enables outdoor advertisers, public transport companies, public authorities, museums, event organizers, retailers and brands to create and adapt location- and time-based services, to associate tags and services and to manage tags and application life cycles. CONNECTHINGS customers are brands, international public transport companies and local government authorities that deploy networks of public tags. CONNECTHINGS has its headquarters in Paris, France. For more information, please visit http://www.connecthings.com.

Contacts

For INSIDE Contactless

Patrick Corman
Corman Communications, LLC
(650) 326-9648
patrick@cormancom.com
http://www.cormancom.com

INSIDE company contact

Geraldine Sauniere
Marcom Director
+33 (0) 4 42 39 33 01
gsauniere@insidefr.com

CONNECTHINGS company contact

Jean-Noël Barneron
+33 (0) 1 42 46 31 12
jeannoel.barneron@connecthings.com