Nokia to launch NFC Hub service in Singapore and Malaysia
Ways you can use NFC--tap to like a Facebook page, visit a custom URL or easily follow a brand on Twitter.
(Credit: Nokia)
When you tap your phone on an NFC sticker, it will pick up the relevant information embedded inside the tag--from a simple URL linking you to a Web site to letting you check-in to a Foursquare location without having to manually load the app.
From what we understand, Nokia has already launched this in Europe and mentioned during the N9 launch in Singapore today that they will announcing something similar "within weeks" for Singapore and Malaysia.
While Nokia is behind the NFC push, the technology is open to all--including rival platforms like Android. Google is actively pushing a mobile payment system using NFC called Google Wallet. Nokia, however, disagrees with this--it believes that mobile payments are not the way forward.
"For NFC to explode, a lot of people are talking about payments, and they are totally and utterly wrong," said Mark Selby, Nokia's vice president of industry collaboration at a launch event in Hong Kong. He further explained that it will take a long time to get the systems set up for making transactions, and that there will be regulatory restrictions that such payments will have to abide by. "That does not mean payments will not happen, far from it. It will happen in a different way," Selby added.
Nokia's approach to NFC is to create the ecosystem first and let mobile payments happen naturally in "three to four years". It is doing this via its NFC Hub service. Admittedly it can be quite expensive to order the posters and tags, but Nokia hopes to bring the cost down to US$0.03 to US$0.04 cents within 36 months.
NXP Semiconductors, co-inventors of the technology, has previously partnered Google to deliver an open-source software for NFC on Google's Gingerbread (Android 2.3) operating system. The company also believes that the NFC adoption rate will increase considerably, particularly in Asia.
"Some of the encouraging signs include government willingness to develop the NFC infrastructure within the country as well as the cooperation between various stakeholders such as merchants and service providers from different industries to create a rich ecosystem for NFC applicability and availability," said Ciaran Fisher, NXP's business development director.
Fisher further highlighted Singapore's Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) as one of the agencies pushing for a "vibrant and sustainable NFC infrastructure" which will help to encourage "extensive adoption of NFC mobile services by merchants and consumers".
(Credit: Aloysius Low/CNET Asia)
Besides regulatory approval, the drive for NFC to succeed requires devices and there seems to be a scant amount of NFC-enabled handsets in the market.
Nokia hopes to change this with its recent launch of smartphones that come with NFC built-in. The company will have four to five handsets in stores by the end of the year, and this includes the Nokia N9, the C7 and the recently announced Symbian Belle devices.
Future phones will also have the chip built-in to tap on the ecosystem that Nokia is creating, which should also include upcoming Windows Phone 7-based devices.
Stay tuned for the official announcement and more details of Nokia's NFC Hub in Asia which should happen very soon.
About the author
Aloysius Low is a Senior Writer at CNET Asia and covers all things mobile. A former World of Warcraft addict, he now dabbles in social media to stave off the withdrawal symptoms. As a lover of all things furry, he's also the unfortunate slave/minion of two adorable cats.
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