For most of those who have heard of mobile NFC it is a future technology that allows you to pay for goods via your mobile phone. In reality mobile payments are just the tip of the iceberg as NFC enabled mobiles will be utilised for much more; from cashing in money off coupons at the store to social interactions, marketing, device pairing, electronic keys, games and basically anything that involves information or data being exchanged.

NFC stands for ‘Near Field Communication’ and basically allows wireless communication between devices within a radius of approximately 10cm. NFC technology communicates through a process named ‘magnetic field induction’ and operates in a radio frequency band ISM (13.56 MHz).

The future of mobile payment looks bright indeed, a recent study by Juniper Research estimated that global NFC mobile payments would reach $50 billion by 2014, 2012 should be a banner year with NFC launches in up to 20 different countries. A recent poll by MasterCard showed that 63% of consumers between the ages of 18 & 34 would be comfortable using their mobile phones to make payments, as time goes on this percentage will rise as NFC tags become the norm.