NFC or Near Field Communication is a new technology that is slowly entering the market and has already seen use on the newer models of the iPhone with Apple Pay. What it allows is for authorised devices to connect with one another if they are in close proximity. The technology itself is an update on the already existing RFID chips or Radio Frequency Identification chips. NFC is limited to about four/five inches which is perfect for what I’m proposing with the Comm-Unity project. This means that people have to be involved and actually find the beacons themselves rather than passing by and gaining access to the data. With NFC, a connection is established once the device is close to it, meaning that where Bluetooth has to be manually searched for and paired, NFC does it in a much more easy and accessible way. As it is currently, Apple only utilise the NFC chip for payments, it doesn’t actually shift data in any capacity. In order for my product to work on Apple devices, Apple would need to open this up and allow for a much more accessible version of NFC, something that can be developed for. Besides this, certain Android devices use NFC to transmit data as well as making payments meaning that it would be relatively straightforward to develop for. That being said, it would be hard to push for a project on this scale without utility on Apple devices as currently they still maintain the largest portion of the market. If the app was exclusive to Android, more phones would be able to access the app however it still wouldn’t have the same drive and buzz as it would do with the Apple userbase.
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