NFC (Near field communication) is close to losing its next big thing status and becoming the norm. But before we get there we’ll have to adjust to a payment method that should make standing at the checkout a far more interactive experience.
Say you’re buying a cup of coffee, proponents say, tap to pay with your smartphone and not only will the coffee shop electronically ‘stamp’ one of those little cards that gives you your tenth cup free, it might give you a discount just for paying by your phone.
As usual, the majority of the tech world thinks that sounds pretty great.
And it is. But it’s far from a perfect as, I suspect, users will find out swiftly after the universal launch of the service. Here are three of the potential problems.
NFC won’t stop sneaky discounts
The method of delivery may be changing but that won’t stop retailers’ sneaky practices.
So: RRPs will magically jump up as soon as a ‘discount’ is applied, ‘buy one get one free’ deals will mysteriously come about just as the item experiences an increase in price and your half-price discount code will continue to be applicable only to three dishes on the menu, none of which, it turns out when you go to pay, you ate.
This is a lesson many were disappointed to learn as they started to use daily deals sites such as Groupon.
NFC won’t stop bad broadband connections
In the shiny future world where we pay by our phones for everything, we’ll still need a 3G connection for many of the interactive apps and budgeting tools that promise to make paying by phone so much easier.
But mobile broadband isn’t looking so shiny.
We’re facing a capacity crunch, what with all these people using their smartphones all over the place, and that means slow 3G connections all round.
That’s where you can get a mobile broadband signal, of course. Though its always being refined, 3G is a notoriously inefficient way to access mobile broadband services and hotspots will always be a problem.
NFC won’t stop poor integration
Finally, NFC won’t make banks and technology companies play nice. Tools which could help us to budget and keep track of our money could face long problems, if not outright hostility, when they try to link up with online bank accounts.
This is a guest post from Choose, a site that helps UK users find the broadband deals.
