What does NFC owe Consumers?
November 28, 2012, WIMA NFC Conference, Millbrae, CA—Koichi Tagawa from the NFC Forum and Sony asked now that we are on the verge of shipping 100M NFC devices, what do we owe the consumers? Over the past 10 years Sony, one of the founders of the NFC Forum, has been slowly making the transition from R&D, to developing new use cases, and now is moving to the reality that the technology is ready for prime time.
The existing devices without NFC can be adapted with accessories through Bluetooth to take advantage of the capabilities. The apps are starting to appear and the specifications and infrastructure are becoming available. The infrastructure is moving towards card readers that are dual function, swipe or tap capable in a single device. The biggest problem is that users still swipe cards that can be tapped.
The Forum has instituted a certification program for active and passive devices, and is starting to cross recognize other groups. They have initiated a series of plug-fests to demonstrate interoperability and compliance. Now the efforts are in building liaisons and developing partners. The forum has over 180 members and everyone is building communities of interest.
These communities are working on the existing technologies, growing the ecosystem, and improving the technology and its implementations. Some of the new vertical segments are consumer, airline, retail, health care, payment, transit, and others. All of these segments will get their own special interest group (SIG) to generate inputs from all possible constituents. Anyone can contribute to the SIGs since the SIGs are set up to be open to member companies and any other interested parties.
NFC maintains a higher level of security than most plastic cards because the content is accessible only through the proper protocols. Users need to be educated on use and good security procedures. The devices and infrastructure are becoming widely available, and the industry is about to grow exponentially as the apps become available.
