1: Mobile technology permeating every part of our lives in the developing and developed world
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2:growth and adoption rates of smartphones faster than adoption of television or even the PC.
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3: Mobile computing fast growing to replace desktop machines.
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4: Online payments and banking commerce growing now above late 90′s dot com bulle rates.
= Advent of NFC Technology.
Good article here http://mashable.com/2011/03/15/google-in-store-mobile-payments/
and the wiki here.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_field_communication
What does it all mean? It means that you will no longer need to carry a wallet. At the moment, All I carry in my pockets are 4 things. A packet of cigarettes, a lighter, my iPhone and my laser card.
The former 2 items are hopefully not always going to be something I carry in my pockets, but the phone and card are there to stay. So what if I can get rid of the card?
Well with NFC Technology coming in the iPhone 5 and next HTC Suite of devices, all you will have to do is scan your phone and a chip inside it will be linked to a payments account.
If you travel in London frequently, think of it like an oyster card that is inside your iPhone.
If you go skiing or snowboarding, think of it like your ski pass, on your phone.
Or if you ever bought a drink in a bar, its your credit card, but inside your phone, all the time.
We think that the best applications for this technology are yet to come, but NFC is one of the holy grails that the traditional mobile companies and thinkers have waited for for a long time.
Its funny to think that Nokia could have avoided having to team up with Microsoft, had they lead the footing into NFC technology 4 or 5 years ago, but sleepy directors and CEO’s had to get the wake up call when apple announced they had made a mobile phone.
Todays news about AT&T buying T-Mobile is good news for American mobile customers but I doubt the mobile opperators will be the ones to drive NFC tech, and unfortunatly, the phone manufacturers will only be the enablers, however with Apples SDK and the numerous Android SDK”s, it will be us, the developers that will shape the market and invent the tools that will drive user adoption and useage of this new and incredible technology.
So have a read, and then think of the possibilities. If you have a killer idea that you think you need help in developing or building, feel free to get in touch and we would be happy to discuss.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_field_communication
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