NFC news in a nutshell

iPhone Inventiveness

We recently blogged on Apple’s non-committal stance on NFC, the company eager to keep their plans for the technology under wraps. Not a group to enjoy being behind in the technology race, iPhone fans have found that they can overcome the lack of embedded NFC by placing a contactless bank card in the iPhone’s case. It isn’t exactly the slick and seamless experience that iPhone users have come to love, but certainly a step in the right direction. It remains to be seen whether Apple will take inventiveness like this to heart and release a phone that comes with NFC technology inbuilt. Otherwise, they might just find that their phones start to become covered in bits of sticky tape and plastic cards. The iPhone is one of the most attractive phones on the market. Let’s not take that away from it.

Google invests in technology to keep m-wallets safe

In Google world, the company have taken on board consumer concerns on NFC security and are using fingerprint technology to keep mobile wallets safe. Many users are unaware that mobile wallets can simply be linked to a pre-paid card as opposed to their bank account directly. As a result, concerns about security are incredibly high (with KPMG reporting security as the greatest inhibitor for mobile wallets) and Google have always seen user experience as paramount. It doesn’t really come as a surprise, therefore, that they are developing a technology to combat these worries: fingerprint sensors. The user gains access to his wallet by swiping his finger across the screen. We wish Google the best of luck with this. Anything to help make such a life-enhancing technology more useable is always a plus for us!

RIM’s outlook on NFC

When Mobile Europe spoke to RIM’s UK MD, what they found was that he believes shopping through the mobile is the next step on from internet shopping, with m-payments the catalyst to see this become reality. For the full story, click here.

Hungary’s top MNOs unite on Mobile Wallets

Only a month since the UK’s leading network operators announced their decision to team up on NFC, Hungary’s top mobile service providers are doing the same. Vodafone, Magyar Telekom and Telenor have joined forces to launch NFC payment services in phones.

No more loose change! Consumers can soon pay with their phones

With trials of applications beginning this year, the MNOs expect commercial services to be available come 2012. The decision to come together (in alliance with MasterCard, OTP Bank and SuperShop) means the NFC will see a greater push in Hungary, with consumers being able to pay for products and services with their mobile phones much earlier than those in other countries. The alliance is called the Hungarian Mobile Wallet Association and plans to lead the way in mobile wallet development in the country.

Payments made easy

What NFC can do for you, our Chief Exec in cartoon form, and Barclaycard’s dinosaur milk. It’s all here.

We’re liking Barclaycard’s mockumentary on the evolution of money (below). As well as making us wonder about the taste of dinosaur milk and what TOWIE girls might have been like in medieval times, it’s a great demonstration of how simple NFC payments are. Have a look:

So what’s new with us?

As usual it’s all go here at Hypertag. We’ve had some great feedback on our NFC Murder Mystery Game, including things to work on for future events. We now have a London base with staff based in and around the city. If you have an enquiry or simply want to send us a present (we like gadgets), you can jot down the address here.  We’ll be running a similar NFC Murder Mystery game in London shortly – watch this space!

As an NFC payments milestone, discussions on the collaboration between O2, Vodafone and Everything Everywhere are still going on. Neil Garner had a chat to Brand Shandy [great name! -Ed.]  about what this means for retailers, brands, agencies and those working with NFC. You can have a look at what he had to say by visiting their blog (where you’ll also find out what Neil would look like if he were a cartoon character).

As NFC picks up momentum, we want to celebrate what the technology can do for us. There’s a huge number of NFC-related possibilities but these are the few we think you’ll see first:

• Someone buying lunch with their phone. If you’re around our offices on weekday lunchtimes, you’ll regularly see our Chief Architect, James Taylor amazing Subway staff with the magic of m-payments. Very soon however, staff might be less surprised as more and more people take advantge of the simplicity of this technology.
• NFC opening doors. Literally.
• People walking up to posters and holding their phones against them. These guys are getting exclusive content all because of NFC. This could be anything from vouchers, to videos, to game upgrades. If you don’t want to miss out, you can purchase any one of a number of NFC phones. The NFC Forum has quite an extensive lists of the ones available: NFC phones list.