Samsung released Galaxy S 2 in Korea this April. Galaxy S 2 is embedded with NFC chipsets which support single wire protocol and USIM based applications. And yesterday, RIM announced its first NFC phones, the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and Bold 9930. According to the press release, these phones also support single wire protocol.
After the consecutive launch of NFC phones, a NFC-related business is on its track to be activated by the end of this year. In spite of building this NFC-friendly situation, there are several restrictions such as infrastucture which supports NFC payment. And most of all, we don’t know whether Apple will adopt NFC in iPhone 5.
Although it reported that iPhone 5 will not embed NFC chipsets several weeks ago, there is no definitive explanation about the detail speculation of iPhone 5. Many people believe if Apple is not that aggressive with NFC, it needs to wait longer to spread the NFC business. It’s not an issue of infrastructure but the issue of life style.
iPhone has innovated many aspects related with customer behavior. It means that Apple designs detailed functions of iPhone based on the considerations of what will be provided innovatively and differentiatingly. So other smartphone makers closely cooperate with carriers because they don’t have their own business model and differentiated factors on NFC.
Even Google and Samsung tried NFC business in their own SE policy with Nexus S. But the result does not meet neither customers’ needs nor players’ intention. So other line-up of Samsung smartphones appears to be released on the alliance with carriers.
This is why the market needs participation of Apple to activate a NFC business while many players watch out for Apple’s next move.