The Internet of Things or the death of the piggy bank
The NFC technology will finally enable us to connect virtual and real world – really! NFC is short for near field communication and it will become the single most important innovation in mobility since the launch of the first iPhone. NFC on modern smartphones will finally usher in the age of the “Internet of Things”. So what can NFC do for us?
The Tag reading apps know it all
Lets think retail. With an NFC tag it will be possible to check prices, get additional product information such as manufacturing details, origin and whatever will be relevant to the consumer. Besides retail NFC will provide a wide range a possibilities for tourism. Since the tag reading can take place and be useful long before purchasing takes off in force.
The Freedom of Purchase finally becomes reality
That’s the scenario talked about most often with NFC. The smartphone with NFC becomes a “mobile wallet”. For example, you could use your smartphone held near a payment device to pay your restaurant check, as made possible by Verifone and Micros Systems. And of course the purchasing scenario combined with NFC tags is even more compelling. It enables self-service shopping combined with a very fast and foolproof purchasing step, all enabled by each consumer’s ubiquitous smartphone. That will mark the end of the annoying queues.
The new way to manage Objects
Once tags are available on all of these objects, driven by these previous two steps, a final phase can begin, which hasn’t been discussed much so far: intelligent adaptation and management of everyday objects. Specifically most new products will be NFC tagged. This allows a whole host of new kinds of apps where the NFC tag on the object can enhance the smartphone user’s experience and productivity.
Ubiquitous smartphones equipped with NFC chips and world of “mostly NFC tagged objects” opens up huge new possibilities for apps, which are only starting to be imagined.
Henny Steiniger is a Consultant and team leader at Hubble Western Europe. Henny is an economist graduate and started her career in 2000 at the Mercedes Benz marketing department. After working for PricewaterhouseCoopers corporate finance department and teaching marketing, controlling and economics at the chamber of commerce and industry Dresden, she changed to the agency side in 2004 and worked as an Account Manager for Springer&Jacoby. She took responsibility for various international clients such as smart, Coca-Cola, McKinsey&Company and Unicef. In 2006, Henny started to raise a new company named “Wirtschaftskraft” together with the managing partners. The company is focused on brand and sales strategies for German medium-sized businesses. Henny became head of strategy and helped clients to develop strong brands and reach significant increase in sales volume. In 2011, she joined the Hubble Team. Henny can be reached at henny.steiniger@hubble8.com