By Eelco van de Wiel

The latest version of the Android SDK has full support for NFC functionalities.
NFC means Near Field Communication and allows mobile phones to communicate to nearby objects. Chances are that if you buy a smartphone towards the end of this year, and most certainly in 2012, it will be equipped with a NFC chip. This technological advancement introduces a new era in mobile communication as it allows mobile payments, location based mobile advertising and communication with local objects to launch a URL, call a number, open a map to a location or launch an  application. 

The NFC chip will replace all of the cards in your wallet and is expected to be the future payment medium. Google focussed their API on mobile payments and is working with MasterCard and Citigroup on a near field communication (NFC) based mobile payments system. 

Even though the technology has been around for a long time it’s only now that the large scale introduction is announced. The long delay has been a result of the economic crisis in combination with the large shifts in the operators - software - hardware powerfield. Now one of the major players, Google, included the NFC technology the technological shift finally takes place.

As happened with all previous technological developments it will take a long time for the leading design to emerge. The next period will be dominated by a power struggle among the big players in the ecommerce and payment playing field to gain the largest market share. As it took almost a decade to introduce the new PIN card in the Netherlands, it might also take as long for mobile payment to be fully supported. 

The image below shows a possible solution that uses RFID: 

Trendwatching.com is a leading website regarding the last trends in consumer behaviour. Recently they introduced the 10 consumer trends for 2010.

Number 7 of the consumer trends is  ”Tracking and Alerting”.

First of all, ‘TRACKING & ALERTING is the new searching’, as it saves consumers time, makes it impossible to forget or miss out, and thus ultimately gives them yet another level of control. Count oneverything being tracked and alerted on (there’s more than FedEx packages!): from friends (MASS MINGLING!) to enemies to fuel prices to flights to authors to pizzas to any mentions of oneself.
Oh, and ALERTING, when done well, is of course the ultimate in INFOLUST: relevant informationfinding consumers, based on (voluntarily revealed) preferences.

This gives huge possibilities for mobile advertising, since the mobile phone gives the ability to give relevant information anytime anywere, and using location based services it’s possible to give extemely relevant information. As a marketeer you can let your imagination speak and think about the possibilities of SMS related to this trend.

This trend is closely related to infolust

this desire for relevant information is insatiable, and will soon move from the online world to the ‘real’ world to achieve true ubiquity

In short, people will start looking for information anytime anywhere and are not bound to the online,  behind-the-desk world. Mobile phones will play a major role in this development. A lot of tools of the mobile phone make these development possible. Think of location based services (GPS), mobile bar codes (QR Code), codes linked to sms and maybe and hopefully soon RFID.

It’s up to you as a marketeer to use this trend to fit the needs of consumers to the product en services you offer.

BizzSms strategy for P&G