A while back, we reported that a tech blogger discovered some NFC functionality on the Google+ mobile app. Google has also been actively implementing the technology for its Google Wallet and Google Places services.

With our favorite search company placing bets on NFC, it’s no surprise Sony Ericsson wants in on the action. According to Steve Walker, global head of marketing at Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, mobile payments will be the “first and most obvious” use for his company’s implementation of NFC. Don’t be surprised to see the technology come to life in gaming and entertainment applications either, since that’s how Sony Ericsson differentiates its phone from others.

He adds: “NFC should be universally adopted across all industries. It requires somebody to take the lead. We saw it happening in Japan where mobile payment and ticketing technology was adopted quickly when the government took the lead. Train companies, banks and retailers followed suit. Mobile phone companies are waiting to make the plunge.”

Looks like Steve found his leading man.

Alongside Google, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications is also a principal member of the NFC forum, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing NFC technology. The forum boasts sponsor members like MasterCard and Microsoft, and principal members like Intel, PayPal, and American Express (more on membership schemes here).

With other major mobile players like HTC, Samsung, Motorola, and Nokia already producing or about to release NFC-enabled phones (see list of phones), Sony Ericsson is late on arrival, although their arrival at the hot tub party will certainly be welcomed by NFC proponents.

The only party-pooper? Apple. GigaOM has a nice article that documents the rumor mill surrounding whether iPhone 5 will be NFC-enabled, although the author also said that it “makes sense” for iPhone 6, set for launch in 2012, to be the first Apple phone with NFC capabilities. That will put it behind the competition though.

A special one for the tech startups who are developing apps on Flash and thinking about the business viability of MeeGo and AppUp. Pardon the pretty raw editing though, this geek is so not a video editor and I tried to shorten the video to fast forward to the important parts.

During the session, you’d hear opinions from Scott Hershkowitz from NBA, Ben Parr from Mashable, and Loic Le Meur of Seesmic share their experiences launching their apps on various platforms, as well as an interesting take from entrepreneur and investor Guy Kawasaki who also gave some insight on how he, or his team, tweets.

From Left: Guy Kawasaki, Scott Hershkowitz from NBA, Ben Parr from Mashable, Loic Le Meur from LeWeb, and Regan Fletcher from Intel

The entire session is 45 minutes but highly entertaining with lots of banter (and Angry Birds), save for the amateur camera skills on my Canon PowerShot G11.

App monetization panel on Intel AppUp Elements Conference from Nicholas Khoo on Vimeo.

Intel AppUp Center

Intel’s very own app store is co-branded and launched with partners like Best Buy, Asus, UK-based retailer Dixons and India-based retailer Croma. Imagine your apps for Windows or Linux (MeeGo open source operating system) on this app store that will be shipped with every Atom-based device like net books (there are 70 million netbooks in the market now according to Intel), mobile internet devices, tablets and even upcoming embedded devices like in-vehicle computers, MeeGo TV, MeeGo Home Phone.

Intel AppUp app store.

Intel AppUp center will also support applications based on the Adobe AIR runtime; 100 Adobe Air apps are expected to be available by the end of September.

Intel AppUp Developer Program

The name has been changed from the Intel Atom Developer Program. And while developers might wonder about the value of another developer program, Renee James, Intel’s Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Software and Services Group explained that Intel discovered developer programs are at the heart of an app store strategy and Intel happens to be “really good at developer programs”. In less than a year, Intel now has the third largest developer program in the world and almost eight million developers use the Intel Software Network as a community according to James.

Intel AppUp Showcase

Intel’s software developer conference kicks start today with Adobe being one of the key partners. Expect more on MeeGo and how Adobe is going to support Intel’s AppUp Developer Program with an interview coming up with Eric J. Wittman, Adobe’s Director and Head of Flash Platform Services.

More on Intel Developer Forum

Other annnouncements include the new generation processor technology code-named “Sandy Bridge” and a slew of tablet devices, with WeTab based on the Intel® Atom™ processor N450 and running on MeeGo, which you can find out more from Geekonomics. Intel wasn’t able to answer a lot of questions on the McAfee acquisition and while no futher major acquisitions are being planned, Intel CEO Paul Otellini is not “ruling out” any acquisitions if good deals come along the way in response to questions from the press.

Stay tuned for more news on the Intel AppUp Developer Program.

As part of the Fund, the Intel Atom Developer Program Accelerator 2010 will provide funds for the development of breakthrough or advanced netbook applications that will help bring new consumer usage models to Intel® Atom™ processor-based netbooks, especially apps that demonstrate creativity and show potential for significant growth and broad consumer appeal.

Since its inception, the Million Dollar Development Fund has sparked a 75% increase in developers registered with the Intel Atom Developer Program.

Applying For Funding

If you have a great idea or an app – either something you are getting started on OR an app that you you’d like to port from another platform, just fill out the online submission form.

Provide as much detail as possible – what makes your application compelling, specific features designed for the netbook audience, why your application is poised for growth, etc..

If approved, you will receive the funds when the application has passed validation. Funding per application will vary and will depend on the application originality and scope of work required on the application.

More details about the fund here.

Our friends at Tech65 starts off this week with their weekly podcast on the following issues that dominated the tech landscape: [1] Google takes on Facebook and Twitter with network site, [2] Google Buzz: Privacy nightmare, [3] Windows Phone 7 Series, [4] Samsung Wave / Bada Exclusive First Look, [5] Intel and Nokia’s MeeGo Join a Brewing OS War, [6] HTC Legend, Desire and HD Mini, [7] Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 mini and Xperia X10 mini pro and [8] Auto login for Wireless@SG – at last. Do click and check out their latest podcast here. You can now also listen to the Tech65 podcast here as well by coming to the blog post directly.

The beta version of the Intel Atom Developer Program Software Development Kit (SDK) for both Microsoft* Windows (C and C++) and Moblin (C) is now available. So you can now use this SDK release to submit your apps and be ready to sell them through Intel’s partner app stores when they open in 2010. There also prizes to be won in the Intel Atom Developer Challenge. Read on for more details.

Beta Version

The features of this beta SDK include: authorization, crash reporting, a consumer store client emulator for testing, license management and revenue management.

Intel Atom Developer Challenge

The Intel Atom Developer Challenge is now accepting applications till 4am, February 3rd, 2010 Singapore time.

However, if you submit anytime from now till December 21, 2009 (an early bird), you get a chance to be one of the 5 winners selected from amongst all the early birds. The first and second place winners will each receive either a smart car for two or a vacation package each with a retail value of about USD $20,000. The third, fourth and fifth place winners will each a get a high-end electronics or gaming package, each with a retail value of about USD $10,000.

For other prizes, check this page out!

From the initial groan of hearing about more app stores, this geek concludes that app stores should be the way forward as we move towards the attention economy. To quote something I heard at Nokia One Connected World conference in Kuala Lumpur last week, “if content is King, then distribution is King Kong!”

Well, our dear friend “King Kong” has to evolve as distribution models have changed drastically in this day and age. As compared to developers trying to market and distribute their apps all by themselves with limited resources, they can now leverage on app stores which seems to be the way forward, if Apple’s app store success is anything to go by. It’s particular visual for me being in San Francisco now as my hotel the Marriott is right across the road facing the now-closed Virgin Music retail store, which incidentally happens to be facing the bustling Apple store.

Apple and the now-closed Virgin stores side-by-side in San Francisco. Taken by the author.

So far it seems, app stores are usually related to one of 2 ‘M’s – music or mobile. The most popular online music store being iTunes and then a slew of app stores popping up now for mobile: Apple’s iPhone app store, Nokia’s Ovi store (currently for Symbian with plans for Maemo), Microsoft’s Windows Mobile “Sky Market” (launching soon), Google’s Android “Market”, and so on. So, this geek shouldn’t really be surprised that Intel is going to launch an app store alongside with the Intel Atom Developer Program which is really for mobility (note the ‘M’) and addressing the netbook segment.

The business opportunity is pretty unique: more than 35 million netbooks have been shipped to date and there hasn’t really been any concerted effort to develop apps for this user segment. While some vendors like Asus have launched their own app stores, it doesn’t seem to have made any traction and now Asus looks to come on board the upcoming Intel app store. I hear that other netbook manufacturers and manufacturers of various atom-based devices in the continuum of devices will come on board too.

Intel’s app store effort is not their foray into the software market as they maintain their focus as a chip maker. Intel maintains that it is an eco-system development effort with some cost recovery at 70/30 revenue share, 70% of all sales going to the developers. The most unique part of this app store is that developers can list component modules for sale, for other developers to fast track their development. Intel plans to manage the revenue share not only between Intel and the developers but between developers and the component developers they work with. Part of this involves a validation process where Intel will not only check that your app installs and uninstalls cleanly, for malwares and other security issues, but also the components that you have used so that component developers will not be shortchanged. However, the validation process will not check if your software is buggy or not.

There is a rating and review system which affects your reputation as a developer, and ties into the IADP where you can earn a black belt. It looks interesting and promising with the component development angle, but the revenue sharing and validation maybe pretty complicated for IADP to manage. As a developer who have been launching your apps on iPhone, Ovi, etc, you should rejoice now with another distribution channel coming your way.

Image courtesy of Brymo.

Along with Social Networking World Forum – Asia which is happening in Singapore on 22-23 Sep 2009, the Facebook Developer Garage Singapore powered by Intel will also be an event that accompany whole event. The Facebook Developer Garage Singapore will happen in Grand Hyatt Singapore from 22-23 Sep 2009 from 10am to 4 pm. You can come to learn more about the trends in social gaming and how to make your apps viral in Facebook. Please RSVP here

Details of the Event:

Date: 22nd and 23rd September 2009
Location: Grand Hyatt Singapore, 10 Scotts Road (map here)
RSVP: FREE! (link here)

Agenda: 22nd September

10.00am – 11.00am: “Building Fan-dom” on Facebook.
If you are looking for ways and perhaps a guide to building your company’s presence on Facebook, then this presentation is for you. You will learn key strategies to acquire, grow and maintain your fan base effectively from ground zero. Engage and excite your fans (both old and new) without becoming irritating at the same time!”
Speaker: Ryan Lim, Business Director of Blugrapes

3.30pm – 4.30pm: “Social games: True Brand Engagement with social networking users”
- Demographics and user behavior in social games
- Successful case studies of brand engagement with social games
Speaker: Leonard Lin, CEO Tyler Projects (makers of hit Facebook game “Battle Stations”, 1 million users/ month)

4.30pm – 5.30pm “Growing Viral with Facebook apps”
- Key metrics and the viral factor
- Building viral concept into Facebook apps
- Leveraging Facebook viral channels
- Critical mass, Promotion, and Positive Network Effect
Speaker: Rex Ng, Managing Director and Chairman of 6waves Inc. (6waves ranks 3rd on FB developer leader board, with over 38Million Monthly Active Users)

Agenda 23rd September

10.00am – 11.00am: Cognitive Biases and Complex Problems – Can Web 2.0 Help Solve Climate Change?
I analyze human behavior for a living, using cognitive / behavioral science and complexity science. In this talk I’ll look at how “cognitive biases” (systematic deviations from rational behavior) affect the (disappointing) human response to climate change, and explore whether Facebook apps and Facebook connect may be able to help
the situation.
Speaker: Dr Shaun Martin is Co-Founder & CEO of consulting firm Mindwasabi

3.30pm – 4.30pm: Infusing psychology theories in developing and marketing social applications
1) Hybridization of reality and virtual gaming
2) Enabling wisdom of crowd through social networks over traditional market research
3) Media Integration and Persuasive Enhancements (Visual and Gender)
4) Common pitfalls encountered by new entrants
Speaker: Keith Ng – Project Lead, Socialico (creator of FAME, Facebook’s fbFund 2009 top 50 finalist)

Our friends at Tech65 start their weekly podcast on the following issues that dominated the tech landscape last week: [1] Palm Pre syncs with iTunes!, [2] Palm Pre emulating an iPod to accomplish iTunes sync? [3] Nokia Ovi Store opens for business, [4] Microsoft launches My Phone beta, [5] Microsoft publishes maximum Windows 7 specs for netbooks, [6] Intel delays Core i5 platform debut to early September, [7] Hewlett-Packard Touch the Future. Now. event, and the Byte of the Week is HP Power to Change. Do click and check out their podcast.