A new Berg Insight’s research report argues that technologies such as NFC are enabling a completely new segment of mobile applications – proximity services or local services. However, Berg cautions the industry first needs to settle several critical technical and pedagogic issues. The market is still guarded and fragmented, but in the long term consumers will not accept to handle multiple devices, cards, accounts and passwords. Hence, a long-term pragmatic view and initial cooperation is necessary to enable the paradigm shift that will “morph the mobile phone into a terminal for communicating with intelligent objects in the environment.”
The research company’s associate analyst Sabine Ehlers said that local contact-less services are already available to over 50 million mobile users that can shop, travel and get information by just waving their phones over readers. For example, in Japan the service is well-established and has recorded a great success in terms of number of readers installed, service partners linked and subscriber terminals in use.
When it comes to actually applying the technology, however, the mass of consumers apparently need time to change deep-rooted behaviours. In Europe, the uncertainty about business models and the lack of coordination between different players are among the key factors that are holding back the further development. In addition, mobile operators regard the new business field with caution due to its lack of obvious revenues for network owners. Not that we won’t see them co-operating with other industry players, it’s just a matter of time or regulative orders. NFC is coming, like it or not!
More information is available on Berg Insight’s website.