What is NFC, really?

NFC (Near Field Communications) is like that strange uncle in your family. He's seems to have a cool job, you see him once in awhile, but you don't really know what he really does. I wrote a little something recently for my work on this subject, and thought I would share it with everyone.

What NFC Isn't

It’s not new tech - based on RFID technology, i.e. Touch N Go.
It’s isn’t difficult to understand, but it needs clear education.
It’s not an iTunes replacement. You can’t sync your music to your phone using NFC.
It’s not indispensable - there’s always another way to do what NFC does.

NFC In Two Words

PAIR & SHARE

Most electronic brands now already have NFC technology in place (except Apple, which we will look at why later). Sony is one of those, and perhaps with the biggest NFC enabled devices ecosystem to-date. Taking Sony products as an example of an NFC environment, I will talk about how NFC works on a day-to-day basis.

PAIR

It simply means to setup connection between two devices. But in Sony’s case, it also means to wirelessly exchange a functionality from the Xperia smartphone with another Sony specialist product.

• Exchange the Xperia speakers with a Sony Bluetooth Headset speakers
• Exchange the Xperia camera with a NEX mirrorless lens

SHARE

It simply means to send a file from one device to another. In Sony NFC’s case, it also means the ability to use the file by:

• Displaying - photos, videos
• Saving - music, contacts
• Opening - website URLs
• Uploading - to social network sites

How Does it Stack Up with the iPhone?

Using NFC can really make things easier in some cases. Assuming the phone's NFC is already turned on by default (by the way, NFC consumes very little power, so you should be safe to keep it on). For e.g.

Actions	Xperia	iPhone
Connect to a Bluetooth headset	1. Touch headset	1. Go to Settings 2. Go to Bluetooth 3. Turn on Bluetooth 4. Select headset
Send a URL to a PC	1. Touch PC	1. Install third party browser 2. Install third party extension on Chrome 3. Press send URL
Connect to a camera wirelessly	1. Touch camera	1. Turn on WiFi on iPhone and camera WiFi 2. Select camera WiFi from iPhone 3. Open the camera app
Stream a video from your phone to your TV	1. Touch TV remote	1. Turn on AppleTV 2. Select display to AppleTV

So if NFC is so great, why isn't it picked up already?

For years, NFC has lots of hype, but very little to show. Below are some of the reasons I believe that has contributed to this fact:

• Because Apple isn’t in the bandwagon yet and probably will never (Apple adopted BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) instead)
• NFC requires users to change usage behaviors, forcing people to interact physically. History has shown that people don’t want to change (remember Maybank’s Tap-to-Pay?)
• The main “killer app” for NFC, i.e. mobile payment, is not growing due to various reasons like perceived security risks, etc.
• Confusion about what it does. Unlike other wireless features (e.g. Wifi = internet connection), it seem to do different things when interacting with different devices.

 

So What? 

While NFC is a pretty matured technology, difficulties in properly educating the customers on what it really does has hampered it's full potentials. To me, it's more useful that a feature like Siri, but because Apple does such a good job marketing and making Siri so easy to use, NFC gets a back seat. With BLE coming up, NFC might even be made history (VHS vs Betamax all over again). We'll just have to see what happens, but until then, enjoy the NFC you have on your device today.