RIM unveils NFC ‘tap and share’ technology for BlackBerrys

10 Oct 2011

The BlackBerry Curve smartphone, which comes with NFC capability

Smartphone player Research in Motion has introduced a new near field communication (NFC)-based system of sharing content between smartphones called BlackBerry tag. Users simply ‘bump’ their phones off one another.

Users will be able to share all kinds of content, from photos and contact cards to web pages and files, by tapping the phones together and triggering the opening of a NFC gateway.

BlackBerry Tag will feature in devices running on RIM’s new BlackBerry 7 software update.

The first devices to include BlackBerry Tag will be the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 and the BlackBerry Curve 9350, 9360 and 9370.

The smartphone giant also plans to open up the API for the NFC-based technology to developers to encourage them to come up with compelling new apps.

“BlackBerry Tag is an exciting and innovative feature that makes sharing contact information and multimedia content effortless and seamless,” said RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie.

“BlackBerry Tag opens a new dimension to the BlackBerry platform that is powerful, simple and intuitive and we think it will be welcomed by both users and developers,” Balsillie said.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com