NFC marketplace launches

The Identive Group has launched an NFC marketplace that provides educational resources and NFC related products. Here at NFC Rumors we love any project that enables people to interact with and use NFC to its full potential and the Identive Group appears to share that same passion for the NFC technology. The NFC marketplace is highly geared towards developers and marketers, enabling them to develop and create campaigns and applications that are NFC based. Here are the main areas of products the NFC marketplace currently caters to.

• NFC tags – The Identive NFC marketplace offers a selection of NFC Forum-compliant tags, including Google NFC tags type 1, 2 and 4, which are the core components of all NFC-based applications, from mobile payment to electronic ticketing.
• NFC readers – NFC readers work with NFC tags to initiate transactions, services or other applications. Identive’s NFC readers are based on contactless technology standards and are available in both mobile and desktop form factors.
• NFC software development kit – NFC SDKs enable application developers and system integrators to accelerate time to market of NFC readers and terminals that support device-to-tag and peer-to-peer applications such as event ticketing, retail loyalty, physical and logical access as well as vending, public transport and mobile payment.
• Educational resources – Identive NFC will offer webinars, webcasts and educational materials about NFC technology and applications.

Whether those projects be smartposter campaigns, retail loyalty, mobile wallet based or simply adding NFC compatibility to a game, the hardware you require to write and read tags remains pretty much the same and the NFC marketplace has a couple of options. If you are aware of the Google IO conference this year, you will have seen the company handing out NFC tags like candy to babies. Until now, its has not been easy to locate these tags for developers and marketers who did not attend the conference. Well, it was difficult because the Identive NFC marketplace sells NFC Forum Type 1 tag, Google NFC tags for as little as $0.85 for bulk or $1.25 each for a single tag. NFC Forum Type 2 & Type 4 Google tags are also available cost effectively, with a price for a NFC Forum Type tag weighing in at the affordable price of $2.oo.

David Holmes, Vice President Mobility & NFC for Identive Group, speaking about the company’s NFC marketplace stated, “NFC is going to radically change how we communicate, get and use information and transact business by giving us the means to turn our smart phones into all-in-one mobile devices. The Identive NFC marketplace offers application developers, OEMS, infrastructure providers and end users the tools they need to create new solutions for the emerging NFC ecosystem.”

The NFC marketplace also sells NFC readers and a NFC SDK

NFC readers start at $39 for a mobile reader on the NFC marketplace which is a pretty affordable price to get your skin in the game. A desktop version weighs in at $69.00 which is also on par with other offerings. We will see prices fall on readers and even expect to see them incorporated into tablets, PC’s and laptops this next year. But for those who can’t wait or do not want to purchase a new computer or device to start developing, the NFC marketplace prices are fair.

The NFC marketplace also has an SDK

If you are a developer who is considering getting into NFC development in your current apps or in a new project, you can piece together most things you will need for around $100. However, that is just for the barebones equipment you will need. If you are serious about developing an NFC product, you will need some more robust tools and reference material and the Identive NFC marketplace has you covered. The contactless SDK comes with two NFC readers, a desktop version and a USB token form factor model. The NFC marketplace SDK also comes with various NFC and contactless NFC tags for app testing. That is not what makes this package interesting though. The value added with this particular SDK is that it ships with documentation and example source code for educational purposes. Supported languages include VC++, Delphi,C# and VB .Net. The kits also ships with demo applications and the pro version of SmartCard Commander, which you can use for testing and debugging your code.

NFC Marketplace Education

From what we can tell at the moment, the NFC marketplace isn’t selling the communities NFC apps and products. So, in essence as it stands, it’s an NFC store. However, one aspect that differentiates the website from others is the proposed NFC educational area. The NFC marketplace intends to provide webinars, webcasts and educational materials about NFC technology and applications. Because NFC is a pretty new evolution in the marketplace at the moment, there are limited resources for education. Sure, you can go through Android’s NFC API and you can even troll around OPEN NFC, but if you need your skills updated to develop with NFC, you are limited at this time. More than any product, this NFC marketplace offers an education in every sense of the word, and we encourage you to check out the site, if for no other reason than to keep up to date with the educational resources the Identive Group plans to publish.