Apple adding support for Near Field Communication (NFC) tags in iOS 11 means that all iPhone 7 and newer will be able to read NFC tags just like Android. This means most people owning a smartphone (over two billion in the world) now have an NFC reader available in their pocket to interact with NFC tags anywhere and at any time.
This is the moment many have been waiting for and signals a fundamental change in the industry and for consumers, according to Paula Hunter, executive director of the NFC Forum. NFC is now a horizontal technology like Bluetooth, WiFfi, cameras. It’s available, free and easy-to-use. How we interact with physical and digital items going forward will change forever.
“Think explosion in Internet-of-things, retail, public transport, automotive smartphone use cases for consumers,” Hunter says. “Think of all the companies started on the premise of the universality of NFC, IoT, mobility . . . their market has almost doubled overnight.”
