In the evolution of mobile phones as a ubiquitous computing paradigm, near field communications (NFC) has emerged as an effective avenue to market new services and products via mobile telephony to the consumer, according to a new report from Frost & Sullivan.

The report, entitled ''Advances in Near Field Communications'', provides an insight into the development and market potential of this technology around the globe, and includes a roadmap for the potential future of the technology and the applications enabled by it. 116.30.192.184 This article is copyright 2007 UsingRFID.com.

Backgrounder
     NFC is a short range wireless connectivity technology that is inherently secure because of its operating distance of less than 10 centimetres. Although the technology is based on RFID standards, the difference lies in the use of radio frequency waves for longer range communication and peer to peer connectivity for NFC communications.

     As the study points out, compared to the automated uses of other RFID-based technologies, "NFC is more about putting the user or consumer always in charge of their environment while transacting with this technology for e-commerce, digital rights management, and information exchange."

Infrastructure as an adoption driver
     The wide contactless infrastructure in the United States and Europe is now enabling the rapid adoption of NFC for mobile payments at points of sale and transport, whereas, a mixed application trend is evident in Asia Pacific.

     It is estimated that one-third (33%) of all mobile phones will be NFC-equipped in a span of three to five years, and that 2008 will be the tipping point as far as commercially viable volumes are concerned.

     The service discovery component of NFC enabled by over-the-air (OTA) downloads is a vital feature of mobile-based NFC as this allows a multi-application, multi-service platform environment to flourish.

End user security
     Also, if a user''s card is lost or stolen, the mobile operator can easily block or cancel the application over-the-air or through a financial service provider.

     But certain uses of NFC will only make sense if there is adequate infrastructure, the report warns. It is only if there are enough NFC-enabled phones and compliant devices to support them that they will work well: "For example, smart posters will require some penetration via the mobile phone to make its use case compelling but, as more and more use cases are developed, the drive for the technology will become more evident from the end-user perspective."

 

 

 

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