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Apple Joins NFC Forum to Work on Developing Future NFC Specifications

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Apple this week joined the NFC Forum as a sponsor member, earning itself a place on the NFC Forum board of directors, reports NFC World. The Near Field Communication (NFC) Forum is the group that works to develop NFC specifications to ensure interoperability between different devices and services.

The team also encourages companies to develop products using the NFC Forum specifications and they make sure products with NFC capabilities comply with those specifications.
"The top tier of NFC Forum membership, sponsor membership, entitles an organisation to a seat on the NFC Forum board of directors, the association's governing body," NFC Forum director Paula Hunter says. "We are delighted to welcome Apple to our board of directors as an NFC Forum sponsor member."
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Joining the NFC Forum board of directors on Apple's behalf is Aon Mujtaba, who serves as Director of Wireless Systems Engineering at Apple. According to his LinkedIn profile, Mujtaba leads the iPhone Systems Engineering team and specializes in wireless systems engineering, architecture, and design.

Other companies who are on the NFC Forum board of directors include Broadcom, Google, Intel, Nokia, NXP Semiconductors, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sony, STMicroelectronics, Visa, and MasterCard.

Apple began using NFC with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, which include the technology to facilitate wireless payments using Apple Pay. Apple has also included NFC chips in the Apple Watch, the iPad Air 2, and the iPad mini 3, and will continue using NFC in future devices.

Article Link: Apple Joins NFC Forum to Work on Developing Future NFC Specifications
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2015/08/12/apple-joins-nfc-forum/
ArtOfWarfare

ArtOfWarfare

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Nov 26, 2007
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I'm curious - what are the major differences between NFC and Bluetooth? Is one not inherently better than the other?

Edit: Investigated a bit and found this:

Bluetooth is for longer distances - up to 10 meteres, while NFC only works for up to 20 centimeters.

Bluetooth has a higher bandwidth - 2.1 Mb/s vs 424 Kb/s.

NFC handshakes are faster (up to 0.1 seconds for NFC vs... not sure how long with Bluetooth.)

NFC consumes less power.

So Bluetooth should be used when longer range and higher datarate are important. NFC should be used when you want a faster handshake and are less concerned about range and data rate.
 
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ipedro

ipedro

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I'd like to see the NFC chip in the iPhone and Apple Watch open to developers so that we can begin opening doors and using our watches and iPhones as ID badges in our work places.
 
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doelcm82

doelcm82

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ipedro said:
I'd like to see the NFC chip in the iPhone and Apple Watch open to developers so that we can begin opening doors and using our watches and iPhones as ID badges in our work places.
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I would like that, too, but the solution may not be making it "open to developers". The secure element of the NFC chip has the credit card data, and should not be accessible through APIs.

Access cards and id badges should be things that can be added to the Wallet, where they work similarly to credit cards.

I know that at one hotel that uses proximity cards for room access, holding my phone up to the lock brings up ApplePay on the phone. There's probably a bit more work to make it work, but it should be possible.
 
alleggerita

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Don't exactly smells like good news to me. As much as I'm an Apple supporter, but them being able to dictate NFC specifications to a certain extend doesn't really look rosy. For one, they might introduce their closed-ness to NFC for reasons like security. And NFC might never be the same again.
 
Nicky G

Nicky G

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alleggerita said:
Don't exactly smells like good news to me. As much as I'm an Apple supporter, but them being able to dictate NFC specifications to a certain extend doesn't really look rosy. For one, they might introduce their closed-ness to NFC for reasons like security. And NFC might never be the same again.
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Are you kidding? Did you look at the other board members? Apple needs to be on this and have a major presence. And really, this is freaking Apple, which has essentially been responsible for the wide adoption of the vast majority of new consumer connectivity technology like USB, WiFi, Bluetooth, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt, FW, USB Type-C, etc. It's GOOD news for NFC that this finally happened, should have been a while ago!
 
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ke-iron

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alleggerita said:
Don't exactly smells like good news to me. As much as I'm an Apple supporter, but them being able to dictate NFC specifications to a certain extend doesn't really look rosy. For one, they might introduce their closed-ness to NFC for reasons like security. And NFC might never be the same again.
Click to expand...

This is very good news. With Apple on board you can expect better security built into the NFC technology.
 
C

CFreymarc

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Read between the lines: they want to do their own NFC chip. We may see this in the iPhone 7.
 
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robjulo

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You are being sarcastic about Apples impact on those technologies right? Other than thunderbolt, which is a complete bust, you can't be being serious that Apple is responsible for wide adoption of wifi, usb or Bluetooth.



Nicky G said:
Are you kidding? Did you look at the other board members? Apple needs to be on this and have a major presence. And really, this is freaking Apple, which has essentially been responsible for the wide adoption of the vast majority of new consumer connectivity technology like USB, WiFi, Bluetooth, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt, FW, USB Type-C, etc. It's GOOD news for NFC that this finally happened, should have been a while ago!
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A

Alenore

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Robert.Walter said:
MCX is nowhere to be seen, a bad sign for CurrentC ?
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MCX doesn't use NFC afaik


Nicky G said:
Are you kidding? Did you look at the other board members? Apple needs to be on this and have a major presence. And really, this is freaking Apple, which has essentially been responsible for the wide adoption of the vast majority of new consumer connectivity technology like USB, WiFi, Bluetooth, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt, FW, USB Type-C, etc. It's GOOD news for NFC that this finally happened, should have been a while ago!
Click to expand...
Is this a joke?
 
G

gnomeisland

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robjulo said:
You are being sarcastic about Apples impact on those technologies right? Other than thunderbolt, which is a complete bust, you can't be being serious that Apple is responsible for wide adoption of wifi, usb or Bluetooth.
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Actually there is a strong case that they are. Certainly USB (very unpopular prior to the first iMac, just look at 1st gen USB peripherals, they all copied the iMac design cues). Wifi less so than the other tech on this list but it was very niche (as was bluetooth to a lesser extent) before Apple started pushing it hard. It is easy to forget what adoption rates were like of these now ubiquitous technologies.

I really hope Apple opens up NFC to developers. At least a subset of the protocols. I shoot with Sony cameras which use NFC instead of bluetooth for pairing.
 
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ipedro

ipedro

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doelcm82 said:
I would like that, too, but the solution may not be making it "open to developers". The secure element of the NFC chip has the credit card data, and should not be accessible through APIs.

Access cards and id badges should be things that can be added to the Wallet, where they work similarly to credit cards.

I know that at one hotel that uses proximity cards for room access, holding my phone up to the lock brings up ApplePay on the phone. There's probably a bit more work to make it work, but it should be possible.
Click to expand...

Starwood hotels worked directly with Apple to enable NFC access to unlocking hotel room doors. It's a special partnership not available to anybody else.

Either an API would need to be provided to manufacturers of RFID access systems or Apple would need to make a first party solution. For example, scan your Watch on the terminal, the Watch would recognize which system is being used and provide it with a random number. The administrator would then enable that number in their system. From that point on, the Watch would act like any other security fob or access card.
 
Nicky G

Nicky G

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Alenore said:
MCX doesn't use NFC afaik



Is this a joke?
Click to expand...

No. How old are you? Because I watched in detail as each of these technologies has rolled out, and it was absolutely Apple at the forefront pushing them in every case, well ahead of other vendors.
 
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