With interest growing again in embedded secure elements in NFC phones to store applications, thanks to Apple Pay, NXP Semiconductors is trying to drive demand for its embedded chips in Android phones by making it easier for service providers to load their applications on the silicon.

While Apple strictly controls the embedded chips, supplied by NXP, in its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus,  NXP is trying to sell the idea of a more open ecosystem for secure applications using its embedded chips in the Android platform. For this, it is promoting an application loader feature it is making available on its new NFC chipset, the PN66T. 

NXP is having some success with the idea, mostly with smaller Android handset manufacturers and brands in China, including Oppo Electronics, BBK Electronics, Meizu Technology, vivo Electronics and also Huawei Technologies, which have adopted the loader feature in one or more of their models, NXP told NFC Times. They would be using previous NXP chipsets. NXP hopes to make the loader a default feature in the PN66T, its stacked NFC controller and embedded secure element, which it is only now sampling.