BlackBerry Tag deployed already in OS 7.1 update for NFC sharing

BlackBerry Tag deployed already in OS 7.1 update with NFC goodness all round

You have probably heard of BlackBerry Tag and its NFC capabilities. We popped over to the Blackberry booth at CES to see Blackberry Tag in action so we could see improvements made to the way the OS deals with NFC. Although we couldn’t see how the new 7.1 OS deals with NFC tags, which was a major issue when the NFC capable BlackBerry smartphones launched, we did see its beaming or sharing features in action. We must say that BlackBerry Tag worked flawlessly in the demo we received from Annu Dawar, who is a Product Manager for Research in Motion.

Let’s face it, BlackBerry needs some good news with sagging sales and their new OS being put back until much later this year. It looks as if BlackBerry Tag may have just made the NFC component of their smartphones equal to the Google Beam features found in Ice Cream Sandwich. We have said before that we would like to see BlackBerry do well considering that they are one of a few mobile manufacturers left in Northern America.

One thing we really liked about BlackBerry Tag was just how far through the OS it had been integrated allowing users to share photos, documents, contacts, music, web URLs and more. It just worked as described, which is a long way from where BlackBerry entered the NFC market.

Checkout the video and images below to see what you think to the new BlackBerry Tag features.

BlackBerry getting ready to launch NFC accessories

In other news, we heard over at the BlackBerry booth that RIM intends to launch NFC accessories like speakers, earbuds and other products in the near future. BlackBerry and Nokia have arguably supported NFC the most over the last year and with Nokia’s disappointing decision to leave NFC out of the Lumia 900 Windows Phone 7 handset, BlackBerry may well have taken the lead in NFC phone deployments in the US. Nokia already has a plethora of NFC accessories launched for Meego and Symbian NFC devices, but none of these phones are on the market in the US.

It appears BlackBerry may have just taken a competitive advantage in North America for being the only smartphone firm to have both NFC smartphones in the market and NFC enabled accessories to match. On the whole, we find the BlackBerry OS a little dated to use compared with iOS and Android; however, the quality of the implementation of BlackBerry Tag works great and is secure.

We know BlackBerry has NFC payments in mind for this next year and each BlackBerry smartphone sold with NFC capabilities already houses a secure element. In fact, we had that confirmed at the BlackBerry booth. OS 7.1 is being deployed as we speak on Sprint and Verizon so if you have updated let us know what you think to BlackBerry Tag and its new NFC prowess. There is no word yet on when AT&T will deploy OS 7.1 or enable NFC in BlackBerry smartphones. BlackBerry Tag is solid and matches capabilities in other platforms, so our question to you is this – is it enough for you to want a BlackBerry NFC smartphone?