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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."

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.

Tag: NFC

Top Rated Comments

doelcm82 Avatar
doelcm82
135 months ago
Range for one thing. Short range is an NFC feature.
Strongly agree. Short range helps keep you from accidentally paying for the groceries on the next supermarket aisle, among other things.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SteveJobs2.0 Avatar
SteveJobs2.0
135 months ago
Apple needs to allow greater access to NFC features in their phones. For example, for pairing iPhone to an NFC enabled camera
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ArtOfWarfare Avatar
ArtOfWarfare
135 months ago
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.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Benjamin Frost Avatar
Benjamin Frost
135 months ago
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.
Amazingly, I can already open doors in my workplace. No watch required.

Hope your mind isn't too boggled.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ipedro Avatar
ipedro
135 months ago
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.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Ballis Avatar
Ballis
135 months ago
I'm curious - what are the major differences between NFC and Bluetooth? Is one not inherently better than the other?
Range for one thing. Short range is an NFC feature.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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