Is NFC Finally Becoming Mobile's Next Big Thing?

It was hard to avoid the message at the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The GSMA, the organizing body, was keen for everyone to believe that Near Field Communication might finally be about to have its day. 

NFC has been a decade in the making, and has always been about to be "The Next Big Thing". It is a contactless radio technology that can transmit data between two devices within a few centimeters of each other. Coupled with a security chip to encrypt data, it promises to transform a wide range of consumer experiences from simple ticketing to the Holy Grail of replacing your cash and payment cards with just your smartphone. The key word there is "promise". 

It was everywhere at Mobile World Congress. If you had the right phone you could bypass the entrance queues with an NFC-powered "badge" on your phone. The halls were strewed with NFC-powered "smart" posters that would unlock all manner of hidden secrets if you tapped them with your smartphone, from restaurant information to directions to the nearest restrooms. There were demonstrations that allowed you to play music on headphones, test if products were genuine or counterfeit, or that let you replace your car keys or your house keys with just your phone. 

Certainly things appear to be moving in the right direction for NFC. Analysts ABI Research predict that 1.95 billion NFC-enabled devices will ship in 2017, the lion's share of which will be smartphones. 

"There are 150 million NFC devices right now," said Reed Peterson, head of business and market development for the GSMA. "By 2014 there will be 300 million. NFC handsets? We think that problem has been solved." Nine of the top 10 handset makers have NFC-enabled devices and both Android and Windows Phone support the technology. Apple is the outlier and has yet to embrace the technology. 

But is NFC a solution in search of a problem? Bar codes, either regular ones or the QR variants, already let you scan posters to unlock extra information; Bluetooth lets you share data wirelessly between devices; cards like Transport for London's Oyster card already allow you to travel ticketless. 

It is possible to find another technology capable of accomplishing the tasks NFC can tackle, "but NFC is the only one that can do them all," said Jeff Miles, a director at NXP, one of the companies behind NFC. 

Both Mr. Miles and Mr. Peterson were keen to shy away from suggesting mobile wallets were the "killer app". They are wise to do so. According to a 2012 report by Forrester Research, "we don't believe the majority of consumers will use mobile contactless payments before the end of the decade, even in the most developed countries." There are several reasons for their skepticism, including a lack of devices, a lack of a clear business case, to the fact that "for now, mobile contactless payments provide only marginal improvements to established systems like cash and credit/debit cardsthe overall user experience throughout the purchase and payment process isn't necessarily simpler, safer, or cheaper." 

Yes, you can travel with Oyster card, but if it runs out of money you have to queue to charge it up. With an NFC-enabled phone you don't. Yes, you can read QR codes, but you have to have the app installed, and there have been cases of people covering over QR codes on posters with malicious codes that direct users to nefarious websites. Yes you can print out your boarding pass for a flight, or even have it delivered to your phone, but you have to have the app openand your phone has to be on.The largest manufacturer of textile indoorlite for use with perchloroethylene. NFC-enabled ticket apps can work with the phone off. They will even workunder some circumstancesif your battery runs flat. Some NFC readers can generate enough power in your phone to power up the security chip, which may be at least enough to get you home. 

And yes, there have been security concerns about NFC, but one has to be careful here, says Gartner Research analyst Mark Hung. "There are two issues with NFC securityNFC itself, and the application that uses NFC. NFC security itself is very good; it is probably the most secure payment method you can have.Choose the right bestluggagetag in an array of colors. But on the app side it depends on the security of the app. That is where a lot of the stories are coming from." 

But for now, says Mr. Hung, the thing that is likely to grab consumer's attention is something as simple as pairingallowing two devices to talk to each other. Yet without a single,We offer over 600 moldmaker at wholesale prices of 75% off retail. eye-grabbing feature,Elpas Readers detect and forward 'Location' and 'State' data from Elpas Active RFID Tags to host besticcard platforms. educating consumersmany of whom don't even know they have it on their phoneabout the benefits of NFC is going to be a challenge. 

Among the many stands at MWC promising an NFC-powered future, one that actually did seem to solve a very real day-to-day problem was an NFC-enabled doorknob from the Swedish multinational Assa Abloy .The need for proper bestsmartcard inside your home is very important. At first sight that seems like ridiculous overkill, but think about it. If you are out and you want to let someone into your house, like a tradesman or a cleaner, how do you do that? You have to lend them your keys, or hide them somewhere. But what about sending them an NFC key that is valid for only a few hours, that alerts you when it is activated and who is using it? All of a sudden NFC doesn't look like such a bad idea.