Mobile Application Development and NFC

Mobile Application Development will never be the same with NFC. NFC stands for Near Field Communications, a technology based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) that allows smartphones and other similar devices to wirelessly send and receive data stored in NFC chips. NFC chips can either be embedded in NFC-enabled devices or non-powered media like newspapers, posters, magazines and the like through NFC Tags. The difference between RFID and NFC is the distance of transmission with RFID used over long distance applications (animal tracking, for example) and NFC being limited to 8 centimeters or even less. The range is quite small to prevent the hijacking of private data, making transactions done through NFC technology secure.

NFC-enabled Devices and NFC Tags

NFC-enabled devices can either be used for mobile payments through card emulation (which virtually turns your smartphone into the credit card itself) or for data transmission for exchanging business cards or sharing different media like photos, music, and others (effectively replacing Bluetooth technology).

NFC Tags, on the other hand, contain non-powered chips that rely on NFC-enabled devices to “activate” them for data transmission. The device will “turn on” or “power up” the NFC chip momentarily with radio waves and get the data it needs from it. This is accomplished by tapping the smartphone about four centimeters away from the NFC N-Mark Tag.

NFC Tags versus QR Codes

Mobile application development has already embraced QR Codes with mobile apps like QR Droid and QuickMark Barcode Scanner but NFC is gaining ground as more and more application developers are joining the NFC bandwagon.

In previous articles, we featured QR Codes and even compared them to Microsoft Tags. Now we are going to compare them to NFC Tags. So what is the difference between QR Codes and NFC Tags?

QR Codes basically are tags containing information that, “scanned” with a cell phone’s camera, takes the user to a website, transfer business card details to your list of contacts, and many others. QR codes indeed are very useful but it comes with a few limitations.

For example, to go to a website using a QR Code, you need to have a mobile app QR Code reader installed on your phone. You take a picture with your mobile’s camera and make sure that the image is clear, have the app access that picture and let it open your browser to take you to the website’s link. NFC does away with this lengthy process. Granted that NFC-enabled devices are still not widespread, in a matter of a few years or so, NFC will inevitably replace QR Codes. QR Codes and NFC Tags are presently on different environments. In our digital world right now, there is a place for NFC and QR Codes to co-exist. As a matter of fact, NFC Hub has even incorporated QR Codes in some of their smart posters.

For now, the present belongs to QR Codes and other technologies. The future belongs to NFC.

The NFC Hub will be covered in a separate article.