Lausanne, Switzerland, July 21st, 2011. Poken is announcing today the launch of a new generation of touch-based products and solutions. The company is evolving from a “social business card” into an end-to-end NFC-compliant platform that enables users to collect digital information offline, and share it in the most simple and effective way. The release includes significant updates for the pokenSPARK and pokenPULSE, introduction of an all new pokenTAG, and the official launch of pokenMOBILE.

With free downloadable mobile apps and 1 million devices sold to date, Poken is used for events and loyalty programs to enhance social networking and provide efficient lead generation. Poken is now introducing new NFC-compliant versions of the ever-popular pokenSPARK and the sleek pokenPULSE. These new designs feature improved capabilities and enable anyone to collect “people, places and things” with a touch. The new NFC design enables users to collect digital files by touching an NFC-compliant pokenTAG or NFC-equipped mobile phone.

The new pokenTAG is a electronic sticker that can contain digital documents, coupons, or multimedia files. Consumers collect this media with a simple touch, using an NFC-enabled smartphone or a poken. Poken’s web-based partner tools make possible the distribution of digital media through NFC tags. The media’s owner can manage and measure its spread both from real-world collecting, as well as from spreading through user’s social networks.

The company is also launching pokenMOBILE, a mobile phone application that allows for a rich, full-featured touch-based experience. By simply touching the NFC phone to a pokenTAG, users can collect information about people, places and things, and explore it in real-time. They can instantly gather, organize and share all the content they find: a common activity online, brought into the physical world through NFC.

‘’We originally launched a basic app on the iPhone, but are now going full-feature on NFC phones such as Nokia’s C7 and N9 devices, and soon-to-come Android,” said Matthew Harris, Senior Product Manager. “By combining Poken devices, mobile apps, and tags, users are able to interact with each-other, as well as out in the community, collecting and sharing the cool things they come across.”

Poken’s new products and platform are innovative marketing tools that can help businesses generate qualified leads, design measurable loyalty programs and innovative promotional campaigns that will create an unprecedented experience for people to engage with brands.

“We’re going “all in” with NFC, and we strongly believe it’s the future of “touch-based” loyalty and payment services. However we’ve also built some useful non-NFC features into our pokenMOBILE app, allowing a user to touch their NFC-enabled phone to an older non-NFC phone — such as an iPhone 4 — to exchange contact information” said Stéphane Doutriaux, Founder & CEO. “That is a powerful differentiator in the market, and along with our Pokens, we truly bridge the gap between today, and a future where everyone will have an NFC-enabled phone”.

The new products are available for order starting today, and will be delivered to customers in bulk quantities as of October 1st.

About Poken S.A.
Poken is a suite of NFC-based devices and social networking software that enable people to collect and exchange digital information in the real world with a simple touch. The Poken suite is fully brandable and is used for events, customer loyalty programs, and more to enable efficient networking, “paperless” data collection and lead generation. With enthusiastic clients in more than 25 countries and supported by a fast-growing network of international resellers, Poken provides innovative products and services powered by proprietary NFC technologies that allow everyone to “collect people, places and things with a touch”. Based in Lausanne, Switzerland, Poken has attracted significant media attention around the world, and it has won a number of awards for technical innovation and excellence. For more information, visit www.poken.com / www.poken.co.za

For more information:

Carole Putallaz
Poken, S.A.
T: + 41 (0)21-311-0678
carole@poken.com

Jolandie Konig
Poken Africa
T: +27 79 590 9406
jolandie@poken.co.za