NFC already supported in Windows Phone 7.5 [Updated]

NFC?

Near field communication (NFC) is certainly one of the bigger technologies to come up out in mobile phones in the terminal twelvemonth, but its mainstream entreatment won't become evident till 2022. Whether or not Windows Telephone currently supports it though has not been well understood. While Microsoft (and Nokia) have made it clear that NFC is on their roadmap, we don't know if if and when that will happen.

At present in an interview with TechRadar, Will Coleman, developer evangelist and product managing director at Microsoft United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland, has stated that our current OS does have NFC on board merely no OEM has added it to their hardware however:

"Every bit far as I'm enlightened, NFC is supported by [Windows Telephone], but needs to be enabled by the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer). So, if any OEM wants to enable information technology, that tin be done past all ways. Think it's about merely almost timing, in the not too distant time to come there are some exciting things that will be coming through with NFC from Microsoft."

That is certainly interesting. We tin of course speculate why no 1 has added NFC including lack of wide-spread support, Microsoft has yet to whorl out any supporting services and cost-reduction in devices. Of course to our enthusiasts out there, no reason would be satisfactory.

Even Keith Varty, head of apps and partnerships for Nokia has chimed in on the affair:

"NFC isn't an if, it'due south a when, it will happen. Obviously there's no NFC on our launch devices, so it's hard to comment too much on that, only the main divisions between secure and non-secure [NFC] mean at that place'south bags of opportunity for the technology [on our phones] particularly with then many operators launching services. We need to go a [Windows Phone] device into the marketplace with NFC capabilities, and when we exercise we can really beginning to showcase our services".

For some of usa, the benefit of NFC is a bit weak right now without any official services to back up--we don't have a Google Wallet and 'beaming' still looks like a means off. But we retrieve the next round for Nokia and other OEMs should finally run across NFC beingness added and used to a significant caste.

Updated: There once once more looks to be some confusion around this outcome and we're now being told that NFC is not currently supported in Windows Telephone 7.five but of course that it is coming in 2022--obviously there is some nitty-gritty tech bits that are being glossed over, only Microsoft is taking the line that information technology is not currently on board in whatsoever grade. Take that equally you lot volition. From Microsoft:

"While Virtually Field Communications is not currently supported on Windows Telephone 7.v, information technology is coming. We expect NFC-enabled Windows Phone devices to send within the side by side year."

Source: TechRadar; via Windows Phone Metro; Cheers, Steven S, for the tip!

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