Recently, at GITEX conference, Research in Motion CEO, Jim Balsillie unveiled Tag, a feature that uses near field communication (NFC) technology. Black Berry Tag allows documents, contact information, multimedia content to be shared between some BlackBerry users just by tapping smartphones together. BlackBerries that support Tag will also be able to add one another as contacts much easier.So far, only five Black Berry models are compatible with the technology and can support Black Berry 7 software update. RIM officials announced that Black Berry Bold 9900 and 9930 along with Black Berry Curve 9350, 9360 and 9370 will be able to support Tag.
RIM officials announced that Tag features will be revealed to the developers, in the hope that they will find the “tap to share” functionality inspiring and will incorporate Tag in their applications. Interested developers are invited to the DevCon, a conference hosted by RIM in San Francisco next week.Analysts believe that NFC could have been boosted if the newly released iPhone 4S would have integrated the technology. Having Apple on board is a winning strategy for any emerging trend. However, the market is not considered ready yet for the most obvious NFC application, electronic payments, as most of the merchants don’t have the appropriate terminals and the users are still reserved to use this option.
However, the development of NFC technology can have a whole other range of implications and can lead to the development to a series of devices we can’t imagine now. RIM’s Tag has pointed users’ expectation in this direction and the following years will surely see more and more devices with NFC capabilities.
