Near Field Communications coming to Windows Phones

NFC coming to Windows Phone as analysts predict mobile dominance.

Microsoft is apparently working on introducing NFC (Near Field Communications) technology into future mobile handsets based on its Windows Phone 7 platform.
This news comes in a week where respected analysts at IDC have predicted that Windows Phone will come to be the second most popular mobile platform within the next four years, trailing only Google’s Android in terms of handset sales by 2015.
NFC is something which multiple manufacturers and developers are starting to look to as the next big thing in mobile technology. The Google Nexus S and Android 2.3 already have the ability to use NFC for hotspot-based contactless payments and info collecting in the wild, with rivals at Nokia and Samsung also working to integrate it into their respective smartphone platforms and handsets.
It is no surprise to hear the news that NFC is coming to Windows Phone 7. Rumours suggest that Apple is almost certainly going to include an NFC chip in the next iPhone, which means that mainstream success is virtually guaranteed for the technology as it is the iPhone which helps to shape trends.
NFC is not necessarily going to be the sole property of high end handsets, particularly since it is only by opening it up to a wide audience that it will be able to succeed.
Network providers are currently looking into the inclusion of NFC technology in SIM cards rather than in with the phone hardware, which would probably be desirable, allowing users to simply swap SIM cards and keep their NFC account when they get a new handset rather than having to suffer through fiddly changeovers.
In 2011 there are a number of upcoming smartphones which will feature NFC. Samsung is following in the footsteps of Google with the Galaxy S II smartphone, a mobile which mirrors the Nexus S in its support for NFC and its inclusion of Android 2.3.
Samsung’s own Bada operating system will be getting an NFC-ready handset in the form of the Wave 578, showing that it is not only the biggest platforms which are experiencing the NFC revolution.
Of course any expansion in the NFC market requires that users start using it and retailers start integrating hotspots into stores. If all of the biggest firms in the industry support it, as seems to be the case, then there will be no stopping its expansion and the Google Nexus S is leading the charge.

This is a Guest-Post written by Ericamuhanji , who writes at Mobiles.

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