Samsung Hints the Unveiling of the Nexus S with WiFi Calling, Next Week?

Since Eric Schmidt’s showing off of his shiny little Nexus S at the Web 2.0 Summit last month, rumors have circled as to what sort of new functionalities it would possess. Schmidt showed the on-board NFC (Near Field Communication) chip in action and talked about its possible future use in the world of making payments via phone. However, he didn’t really “dive” into anything juicier (you’ll understand the pun, shortly).

Today, in a Samsung press release about their upcoming NFC chip production, the company may have hinted at a bit more than it realized. The press release states that the NFC chip will allow a phone to “instantly establish a wireless peer-to-peer connection and directly handover to Bluetooth and/or WiFi connection for fast, convenient data transmission.” If I didn’t know any better, I’d say this sounds like it could be perfect for WiFi calling. It’s possible that this sort of technology could allow for a seamless hand-off when moving from WiFi to cell tower, and vice versa.

The press release also mentions the following key points that could signal the imminent unveiling of the Nexus S:

“Samsung’s new NFC chip is scheduled for mass production in the first quarter of 2011.

Samsung’s new NFC solution will be displayed at the CARTES 2010 from December 7th through 9th at the Samsung booth 3C 035 in Hall 3 at Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center.”

We all know that Gingerbread release rumors are swirling around Andy Rubin’s December 6th appearance at D: Dive Into Mobile (see how the pun came full circle?). Armed with the above knowledge that Samsung will showcase their NFC solution (most likely the Nexus S) on December 7th, it would seem almost impossible for Rubin not to unveil the phone and OS to the world on the 6th. Otherwise, how could Samsung show it off to the public? It’s highly unlikely that they’d show people Gingerbread before Google does. In addition, Sammy’s assurance that they’re going to ramp up mass production of these chips in Q1 2011 aligns nicely with possible Nexus S release dates.

How does early January sound? It seems pretty likely if you ask me. Who knows? It may even come sooner.

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