14 DAY TRIAL // Taiwan-based manufacturing companies are always in high demand, by pretty much every technology brand, so their business prospects can always be used to gauge what is and what will be.
In this case, demand for NFC (near-field communication) services has caused a blip on the radar of market watchers.
Apparently, it has started to rise, and is expected to surge to never before seen heights next year.
Sure, the third quarter of 2015 isn't exactly close, and one might say it shouldn't even be our concern yet.
But Taiwan-based TSM (trusted service management) platform operator and NFC application developer Smart Catch International believe otherwise.
According to them, the three models of NFC services (NFC microSD cards, NFC enabled smartphones (NFC-embedded), and NFC SIM cards) will have market shares of 50%, 20-25% and 20%, give or take.
Joint ventures might be established in China and Vietnam to operate payment transfer services for investment auctions.
For us, normal folks, this all means that near-field communication will be used in even mid-range to low-end smarpthones (if such a thing even exists).
NFC is a technology that establishes very quick and fast connections between mobile devices, wirelessly. However, the range is very short, of one or two inches, which makes it impractical for most data transfers.
It has gained popularity as a way to easily pair devices though, automatically. You can already bring two phones close together and voila! They recognize each other, after which Bluetooth technology activates between them.
So you could say that NFC is a convenience instead of a necessity, which is why market watchers don't think it will take off this year, although sales should still be quite steady in the markets where it's already caught on.
Then again, all technologies were, at one point, just pricey conveniences: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi etc., so all this could be called the natural progression for NFC.