Vincent Berge the CEO of Mobile Distillery left a comment on one of my articles stating that QR was cool but 2009 would be the year of NFC.
Now, I digested the comment but didn’t really think about it – until a very heated New Year’s discussion.
What happened?
Well, I was playing with QR codes and talking to a group of male techies and friends about QR codes. One guy in the team jumped up and said that mobile barcodes were a joke. I didn’t want to argue with techies so I let it go and listened to the discussion.
To my amazement, it was mobile ticketing and underground and train tickets that became the high point of the discussion. I couldn’t believe it.
I then decided to talk NFC and mention the trials going on in Frankfurt and how Austria was a leader in mobile train ticketing.
Then something really important happened. One of the techies joked, “this all sounds great but some idiot probably wants you to change mobile phone to get the service”.
Duh? With QR you download a reader. With NFC you need not only a new device but more often that not a new data package and software and all sorts of things… including local retail participating.
Now – I don’t want to rain on the parade of NFC but I don’t think that 2009 will be the year of NFC. It will be the year of mobile barcodes… but NFC will be eating only breakfast – lunch and dinner will have to wait.
2009 will not be the year of NFC – it will take 1 or 2 more years for foundation to settle down. +/- 5 years for pervasiveness (i.e. handsets and adoption). Cheers.
ceo
I am not suggesting NFC is still too far off because of my position at UpCode. I fully understand the importance, and the possibilities of NFC, now, in the future and, in fact, working together with 2D codes (QR and DM – why do the knowledgeable still refer to 2D codes as only QR?) But, the truth is if we are talking about NFC as RFID (although NFC actually includes Optical Reading that’s Near Field Communication too
)then RFID is working well in specific functions, but yes it is also still a few years away and Optical Reading with codes is a very cost effective, and often equally effective solution meantime and together with RFID for the future.
Just like the concerns for print when the internet reached it’s tipping point, this isn’t a battle of one vs the other – it’s a celebration of all working together for a better future.
Meanwhile supporting optical reading is a wise decision for all concerned and should not be seen as anything but an evolution in NFC.
Happy New Year.
Mark Hendriksen
CEO
UpCode Mobile Solutions
http://www.upcode.com
2009 will not be the year of NFC. Although technically far more advanced then the mobile barcode and because of this pushed by many.
NFC is a closed system, Mobile Barcodes (push and pull barcodes) are an open systems. As long as not all phones have that NFC chip, NFC will be a closed system and the year of NFC will not come at all.
I have been playing around with an NFC phone as used in a payment pilot with a mayor Retailer in Holland and it definetly is far more innovative but I also see some reall threads: who’s going to pay for the extra costs of the chip in the phone when cost prices are under pressure?, who’s going to invest in the NFC infrasturucture to read the phones?, now there are only 2 phones with NFC?, when all phones have NFC will the implementation be standard?, NFC has 3 standards in frequencies (US, EU and Asia) not 1, still not defined is the RFID chip standard?, will for example all banks be able to use the same NFC chip?, etc.
Now I know the headache for developers to get their software running on all phones, when the NFC implementation will be such a drag phone by phone it will be costly.
I see wonderfull future scenario’s in the perfect world, I see too much things to be sorted now in the real world and I also see all phones with SMS support push barcodes and a long list of camera phones support pull barcodes. We do not live in japan, we live in open markets that need open technology, not closed.
That old barcode is not at all written of, its here and now and it rocks. By the time the year of NFC comes all companies that are in the Mobile Barcode business will be way ahead beacues of the market inteligence build up. In the end the ID carier is different but many of the principles are equall.
Cheers, Ron
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I guess we are still waiting for year of the NFC?
Maybe 2012?
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/19/us-summit-nxp-idUSTRE74I4HC20110519
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