NFC History and Future uses

When Google launched its flagship in 2010, there was a shock. The search engine partnered with Samsung after the two-year relationship with HTC ended. The first Nexus series phone was equipped with a small feature called NFC.

History

NFC stands for "Near Field Communication". The technology itself is neither revolutionary nor new. In fact, it is a subset of RFID or "Radio Frequency Identification". RFID is an international standard in radio communication. The standard was approved in 2003-04. In 2007 and 2008, an attempt was made to popularize NFC technology. The cold reaction of the manufacturers ended the widespread introduction of NFC technology. For two years there have been few answers when Samsung started making mobile phones with NFC and Google and said it supports the technology.

Since 2010 a lot has changed. NFC technology is no longer seen as unproven technology in the industry. The NFC International Forum now has more than 200 members, including the world's most popular search engine Google. Several companies in Japan and some countries in Europe have already introduced NFC on a large scale. In India and the US serious discussions are taking place to find new business models with NFC.

Future

Samsung is no longer the only manufacturer that makes NFC-enabled phones. Nokia and other major manufacturers have also participated in the battle. The field is mature. In the next few years, there will be many worldly things that will make the use of NFC easier and faster.

Currently, the simplest areas of retail, transportation and data transmission offer the most potential.

a) NFC retail

Services like VISA Wallet and Google Wallet promise to replace hard paper and metal parts in our pockets and replace them with a set of electronic points on a computer screen. Google Wallet, one of the largest providers of electronic purses, is already compatible with NFC technology in money market transactions. Users can retail tap with their NFC-enabled devices. It's faster and safer than paying with a credit or debit card.

b) Transportation

A number of large multinational companies, AT & T, Verizon and T-Mobile, are investigating the use of NFC tags in transportation. If the search is successful, you may not need to bring your passport to the airport or even queuing up to book a train or bus ticket. Public transport will be equipped with NFC readers in the coming years, allowing the public to enter trains and buses by simply touching their NFC phones or NFC cards.

Even at airports, users can go through security checks and buy tickets for the desired destinations through NFC-enabled phones. There are already discussions in Dubai about NFC-powered transport systems. If successful, NFC tags in the United Arab Emirates make transport easier.

(c) Data transfer easier.

Data transfer between devices with NFC cards is extremely simple and straightforward. It's less awkward than Bluetooth if both users need to unlock a password, but it's safer. The extremely low range of NFC makes it virtually insensitive to hacking attempts.

The NFC has been around for a while. Only recently has the world focused on the development of NFC applications. The future looks promising.