One Day: Your Mobile phone will replace your cash and credit cards!! [NFC 101]

This is what you will be able to do with your mobile phone by 2013-2014:

• Very soon, rather than swiping your credit card, just wave your phone at a payment terminal when you shop.
• Use your mobile for paying your train / bus pass, while shopping or any place where you use your credit and debit card.
• Your mobile phone would act as credit or debit card, a subway pass and perhaps, even a movie ticket.
• Business owners can use this Near Field Communication technology (called as NFC) for reading tags for inventory management.
• When you meet your friend and want some information from his phone simply activate NFC feature and transfer loads of information in matter of minutes.
• NFC lets mobile device owners wave a phone over a short-range wireless receiver or tap the device to make a purchase.

NFC: A Primer

NFC is a newer wireless mobile technology that allows devices to communicate with each other over short distances.  These devices can be 2 mobile phones, a mobile phone and payment terminal or rather they can be any two devices where NFC chip is installed. Data transfer between the devices occurs through one of two means: either a short wave or, as is more common, a touch or tap.

NFC : Use Cases

Near frequency communication is used in three modes, each mode has different use cases

1. Card emulation: the NFC device behaves like an existing contactless card

Example use case: Mobile ticketing: Mobile Phone Boarding Pass.

2. Reader mode: the NFC device is active and reads a passive RFID tag, for example for interactive advertising.

Example use case: Debit/credit payment card. Smart poster: the device used to read RFID tags on outdoor billboards.

3. P2P mode: two NFC devices communicating together and exchanging information.

Example use case: Alternative to Bluetooth pairing, just bring 2 mobile near to each other.

NFC: When is it coming?

• The practice is widespread in Japan and has gained momentum in Europe, but adoption in the U.S. has been slow moving but steadily catching pace.
• MasterCard’s PayPass already uses NFC and any cell phone that has NFC can use MasterCard PayPass.

Current Status of NFC Implementation

- Samsung S5230 NFC,

- Google Nexus

- Nokia C7-00

-  Jim Balsillie, co-CEO of RIM, confirmed the company’s plans to include NFC in its devices at the Mobile World Congress in February 2011.

- 2012 Olympics in London will be the first major event where mobile payment systems using NFC will be used for ticketing purposes.

- 53% of smartphones by 2015 would be NFC enabled and this technology would be more secure than physical debit/credit cards.

Mobile technology is going to get more exciting!

· Your mobile phone is going to a get more valuable because it would be used as alternative to cash and any type of cards along with chatting and SMSing your friends.

· The power of mobile computing is going to re-define the way we do things today and improve them superbly.

Get ready to be a part of this rapid transformation by mobile technology in our routine business eco-system! What’s your take on NFC technology?

[Guest article by Onkar Bhosle, Co-Founder, Anveshan Technologies]

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