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In much the same way that America had to standardize their track gauges in order to build a railway system that stretched from the east coast to the west coast, something similar has to happen for Near Field Communication (NFC) to take off. Some operators are giving customers NFC stickers they can place on the back on the phone they already own. Others are issuing SIM cards that have an NFC chip built in, again alleviating the problem of purchasing a new device. Then there’s the SWP (single wire protocol) standard that requires customers purchase a totally new handset that has a dedicated wire connecting a customer’s SIM card directly to the NFC chip inside for security reasons. With all these different ways of deploying what is essentially the same technology, it’s no wonder that we recently heard a rumor that Apple is electing to skip putting NFC inside the iPhone 5 and waiting to see when and how the mobile industry will standardize around the technology.
Orange, Telefónica Movistar, better known as O2, and Vodafone have agreed that instead of wasting everyone’s time, they’re going to cooperate on how to build out near field in Spain and make it work. They’re not going to form a commercial joint venture, similar to how American operators are working together with Isis, instead they’re going to agree on how they’ll all use NFC so the experience is the same, regardless of which operator a customer user and which shops they visit.
After the Nexus S came out in December and Google announced that Android 2.3 would have near field support built in, many were quick to proclaim that 2011 would be the year NFC finally takes off. With Q1 coming to a close in less than 2 weeks we’re becoming increasingly skeptical that it’s going to happen.
[Via: Near Field Communications World]
About The Author
Stefan Constantinescu
Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.
