NFC

No, it’s not a sports conference or a techno band, it stands for Near field communication.  Now don’t get that glazed look in your eyes.  I am giving you a tip here that will impress your friends, make you look smarter and get you elected to the board of some lemonade stand startup.  In the simplest terms NFC is this – two way communication between 2 devices that are very close to each other.  I know, it doesn’t sound like a big deal BUT it could change the way we do things like wireless phones and wireless internet did.  When these things came out there was plenty of wired phones and wired connections to the internet.  But, it was the “how” not the “what” that was a big deal.  Can you imagine having to plug an Ethernet cable into your Smartphone to check your mail or bring up a map?  The “how” made all the difference, it’s still just connecting to the internet.

So, how is this NFC thing going to change the how for the masses?  I predict in 2 areas authorization/payment and data sharing.

With a NFC enabled phone and merchant you could pay for your burger, shoes or Redbox rental just by waving your phone past a sensor.  It’s like EZTag for drive-thrus.  Vending machines would be a natural.  There is no reason you couldn’t buy a ticket online then use the ticket with a wave of your phone to get into the concert.

The other area is sharing data.  I could give you a song/picture/contact info/directions . . . . stored on my phone (or cloud) by tapping your phone with mine.  I could add you as a friend on my social network with a clink of plastic.  We could split the check for lunch with a swipe-tap-tap.
This technology isn’t new.  These aren’t very outlandish or even original predictions so why talk about it now?  Critical mass, there are enough pieces of the solution getting good enough and available to make it interesting to more than the bleeding edge types.  The NJ transit system is experimenting with it.  Google seems solidly behind it.  The technology is being included in phones even though most of their owners are unaware of it today.

If this gains traction, and I think it will, digging in your pocket for exact change will seem as arcane as looking something up in the Yellow Pages.  Someone is going to brand it calling “tap to pay” or “phone pass” – something catchy but it’s going to be NFC but you already knew that, you are ahead of the curve.