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Samsung Galaxy SIII Mini – now with NFC

Alex Walls
January 21, 2013

An NFC-enabled Galaxy S III Mini will be available at the end of this month.

Samsung said the new S III Mini will have Near Field Communication (NFC) capabilities, meaning with its S Beam feature a 10MB music file to be shared in two seconds, by tapping on another S Beam device, such as the S III or Galaxy Note II.  The company said this feature combined NFC and WiFi direct, which allowed larger files to be transferred.

Samsung UK and Ireland telecommunications and networks vice president Simon Stanford said NFC technology started to gain traction last year, particularly in the run up to the Olympics.

“It’s an exciting time in the mobile market watching the next phase of its evolution take shape, so we’re happy to announce that we are bringing these new experiences to our customers through our growing number of NFC-enabled devices.”

Once the buzz word of mobile technology, NFC suffered a setback when Apple did not incorporate the technology into its iPhone 5.  While mobile banking use is predicted to sharply increase in the next few years and Research In Motion’s mobile payment solution was recently approved by Visa, NFC has been said to be too immature and incorporated into too few devices to proliferate this year.

The release also begs the question – why now? NFC  has been around for a while, why wait until now to release an enabled version – unless it’s a reiteration designed to shift units.

The NFC Mini will be available from major networks, some high street and out of town electrical retailers and online retailers at the end of January, Samsung said.

What Mobile reviewed the Galaxy SIII Mini in its January issue, described as a shadow of its  big brother, the SIII.  For more, see our review.

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