NFC Forum and Bluetooth SIG publish guide for NFC pairing to Bluetooth

NFC Forum and Bluetooth SIG publish guide for NFC pairing to Bluetooth

Something that has been sorely needed is a guide for developers to use NFC for Bluetooth pairing and the NFC Forum and Bluetooth SIG have got together to make that happen. It was just last week we wrote about the lack of NFC speakers on the market and one reason for that is many Bluetooth speaker manufacturers just haven’t considered NFC pairing as mainstream as yet. We think that is due to change in the near term, but the NFC Forum document goes well beyond NFC speakers.

“Since its founding, the NFC Forum has worked hard to advance the market for NFC solutions – first by creating 16 technical specifications, and now, through collaboration with groups such as the Bluetooth SIG, to guide the development of solutions that build upon those specifications,” said Koichi Tagawa, Chairman of the NFC Forum. “Working with the globally recognized and embedded Bluetooth standard makes perfect sense for NFC. It reaffirms our commitment to broadening the commercialization of NFC solutions and providing new benefits to consumers.”

NFC pairing is projected to be supported in all manner of products and services and the NFC Forum guide may spur that adoption

NFC pairing is set to change the way we connect to all manner of devices, whether that be headphones, car stereos, other smartphones, routers, TVs and of course, speakers. The potential of NFC pairing goes well beyond this, but we are sure you get the idea.

“With over four billion Bluetooth technology enabled devices in market today and nearly two billion coming online in 2011 alone, Bluetooth technology has massive scale, support and runway for aggressive growth, and we’re excited to help developers leverage NFC in the right scenarios,” said Michael Foley, Ph.D., Executive Director, Bluetooth SIG. “The beauty of this collaboration is that the SIG, working with the NFC Forum, provides developers with even more design options for connecting Bluetooth devices. For those scenarios that make sense, and where both technologies are available, designing with Bluetooth Secure Simple Pairing using NFC should further empower developers to create great consumer experiences.”

The ease of using NFC for pairing with Bluetooth is evident in the tap and connect action. The interaction is secure and fast making for a frictionless experience for consumers. Credentials or pairing PINs are becoming a thing of the past and the document that the NFC Forum, and Bluetooth SIG have published will surely spur manufactures to embed NFC capabilities into their products.

Google has added the NFC pairing ability to Android, Microsoft is supporting NFC pairing in Windows 8 and an upcoming update to Windows Phone 7. BlackBerry is adding better support for NFC pairing in BlackBerry Tag and, of course, Nokia has supported NFC pairing longer and in more devices than anyone else. There is a demand for NFC pairing, but as yet we have seen very few products that use the technology for Bluetooth connections.

If you are a developer or are just interested in seeing the NFC and Bluetooth pairing guide, you can download a copy over at the NFC Forum by hitting this link. However, what we would like to know is what has prevented major manufacturers aside from Nokia from launching NFC pairing devices so far as the NFC Forum published the specification for Bluetooth pairing sometime ago.