By Claire Reilly
Research in Motion is advancing its push into Near Field Communication (NFC), with the announcement of a new campaign aimed to promote the technology to Australian consumers.
NFC technology allows users to simply tap an NFC-capable device against another object that has been embedded with an NFC chip, in order to quickly access information on that chip. The system is the same as that used for Visa payWave payments and MasterCard’s PayPass – two payment methods that allow card holders to tap their card against a receiver to pay for goods, without needing to enter a pin or sign a receipt.
“NFC is an innovative technology which is enabling smartphones to become even smarter platforms,” said RIM Australia managing director, Adele Beachley.
“We believe NFC will be increasingly used in Australia in a variety of ways including making mobile payments with your smartphone, transferring information or even using your smartphone as a digital key.
“The potential of this technology excites us at RIM, driving us back to our heartland, which is innovation, and allowing us to offer new possibilities to our customers.
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The BlackBerry manufacturer has partnered with Sydney-based NFC marketing company Tapit for its promotional campaign. According to RIM, the campaign “will see NFC-tagged posters and NFC-enabled tokens posted or handed out by street crews, which users can ‘tap’ with their NFC-enabled smartphone to receive content about BlackBerry Messenger and BBM Music direct to their device.”
Speaking about the partnership was Tapit’s CEO and Co-Founder, Jamie Conyngham.
“Through this campaign and via the launch of its recent NFC-capable devices, RIM is helping drive NFC in Australia,” he said. “There is such amazing potential for companies to utilise NFC in a variety of areas, including in their marketing strategies as it provides an instant call-to-action for consumers and puts content straight into their hands.”
An update to the BlackBerry 7 OS will also bring the BlackBerry Tag service to Australians, giving them the opportunity to share content such as contact information, documents, URLs, photos and other multimedia by tapping two NFC-capable BlackBerry smartphones together.
While the technology is certainly impressive and at the vanguard of innovation, NFC-enabled devices are yet infiltrate the market in a huge way in Australia. RIM currently has two NFC-enabled BlackBerry smartphones on the market – the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and the Curve 9360 – while Nokia offers the N9 and Samsung will launch the NFC-capable Galaxy Nexus next week.