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Ever since my trip to Tokyo last year (also known as, my trip to the future), I’ve been a huge fan of NFC and all things near-field-communication-ness.
I mean come on, it’s just so convenient for all sorts of things. In Japan, we used our NFC-equipped smartphone to do all kinds of things ranging from paying for our McDonalds Happy meal, to using it with a vending machine, to being able to use the phone as a subway token.
Which is why when Nokia released the Symbian Belle Trio, each boasting NFC, I was quite happy to see it being used. Whether just to share images between devices, or to pair a Bluetooth headset to a smartphone. Or even to automatically check into a place on Foursquare, or update your status on Facebook. All by just simply tapping the two devices together.
Another fun fact about NFC is that it very directly competes with QR/2D barcodes. I’ve never really been much of a fan of QR codes. I mean they’re cool and all, but oh geez the act of opening up your camera QR code app, and then waiting for it to read the QR code, yada yada. Bleh. I’m not a fan. NFC has the potential to perform any action which you’d associate with scanning a barcode, and it’s blatantly easier to do so with NFC. Basically anything a QR code can do, NFC can do better.
Examples Nokia has shown include ‘Checking in with a tap‘ where you could go to a restaurant and tap on the menu to just check in to it on location-based services. And while we were in Hong Kong we used the Nokia 700 to tap on Nokia NFC tags at the venue, to update our Facebook profiles with our location.
All quick and easy. And the best part of NFC tech is that it’s not confined to just Nokia devices either. Samsung’s Nexus S has NFC built-in, for example. Also another benefit, is that NFC requires almost no technical knowledge to be used both by the person who set up the tag, or the person reading it. Other fun examples include the London Museum’s NFC features and Angry Birds Magic in-game NFC unlocks.
But the problem with this whole equation? That aforementioned restaurant would need to have an NFC chip embedded into that menu. Which turns out to be much more expensive than just simply printing out a QR code.
Nokia have set up an ‘NFC Hub‘ service to help get the ecosystem going, allowing you to order NFC printed tags, posters, business cards or other stationary that has the appropriate NFC chip built-in. But if you look at the website, and note down the costs, you’ll see it does cost more than a normal poster or a normal business card. A single NFC business card starts off at £6, and the posters and stickers start at £20. Or you could just buy a tag for £3.
Sure it’s a very minor hike, but when you multiple that into 300 business cards, for each of say, a thousand employees, that little hike in the price of one card can equal a pretty huge hike in the total cost versus a normal business card with a QR code printed on. Which cant always be justified.
Nokia themselves are a good example of this. Almost every Nokia employees’ business card has a QR code printed on it, but I dont think I’ve seen an NFC business card from the company yet.
Ah, the simplicity that is an NFC enabled business card. Just touch the card against an NFC-equipped handset and all the information the card contains will be sent over to the phone. And the data link is dynamic so if your information has changed, you can always update it.
But I digress. So yes. It’s more expensive than QR codes.
And really, I just. dont. like. QR codes. Cant we just kill them and move on to NFC now?
Ah maybe it’s still too early. Nokia is the largest manufacturer of mobile phones, but they only have 3 Symbian NFC-equipped devices. 4 if you count the C7 or Oro as a different device compared to the 701. 5 if you count the MeeGo-powered N9 and maybe 6 if you count that one china-only model they made with NFC. That’s 6 NFC-equipped devices in their entire portfolio of hundreds of mobile phones. And two NFC bluetooth headsets. And the Nokia Play 360 External speakers. The company has said though, that they have a plan for NFC. NFC support will be coming to the Ovi Store very soon (the Nokia 600, 700 and 701 will supposedly come with an NFC tag in-box that you tap on to download content from the Ovi Store). Nokia might even have a NFC-based Groupon-alternative called ‘Nokia Perks‘ coming up.
A couple years ago it was hard to find a phone with a camera built-in (can you imagine that?). Today it’s hard to find a mobile phone WITHOUT a camera built-in. Hopefully a couple years from now it will be hard to find a phone without NFC capabilities. Wouldnt that be just great?
Here’s a quick video to show you just how easy it would be to share images you’ve taken with a friend, over NFC.
Clinton is currently based in New Delhi, India and is executive editor for UnleashThePhones. He is responsible for all editorial decisions, and covers all forms of Mobile and mobile-related accessories.
Cj is addicted to caffeine, social media, and technology. Always up for a good conversation, you can reach him through the contact form, his website, on Google Plus 
or on Facebook or Twitter: Follow @clintonjeff
I agree that NFC is the future and with big shots like Nokia and Google backing this tech we can expect it to outrun QR codes in near future. Expecting NFC stickers and tag price to go down soon.
"(also known as, my trip to the future)" lol.
[...] rather quickly? High profile gadget lover and Mobile Tech Blogger, Clinton Jeff seems to think so in a post he uploaded to ZOMGITSCJ today – although he does also argue the cost of embedding a NFC chip to respond to a NFC enabled [...]