Replacing name cards with NFC vCard
During a dinner with colleagues, we talked about NFC rumour on the next iPhone and suddenly it pops to me that “do we still need name cards?”. It is because I don’t have one, and I had a meeting that day with a counterpart that run out of name card plus saying ‘this is my old card’. Hassles.
With the world moving forward with smart phone and ownership is reported at 62% in 2012, this could be possible.
The good
It is cool. Awkward at start because no body bumping their phones together in today’s world. When it steamrolling it will be a norm. Walking to a meeting and greet the counterparts, then bump phone. Sounds easy. No hanky panky of having another name card holder or bulky wallet, or worry about the version of name card.
Cloud contacts is everywhere now but not much of human I know use them. If you do, this is going to be great add on without breaking a sweat. Every new contact you bump goes straight to cloud, and comes back down to all your devices. Spotless.
vCard has bigger advantage than 90mmx50mm name card. It can store much more information and easy to customise. Images, external links, notes and stuffs you don’t get in a small name card.
Opportunity on NFC will groom a new market such as, NFC advertisements or applications.
Eco friendly. Blablabla… you get it.
The bad
NFC security has not been strengthen due to the usage is still quite low. So to their viruses. Hackers don’t have much interest into hacking this yet but when it does, we have no idea what it can be done.
Enabling NFC all the time could lead to random spammers, advertisers or stalkers. You will disable NFC if you are taking trains and this defeats the purpose. Solving this is a headache and I have not think of anything sensible for this.
The possible
Rationally, namecard will still be around for a long time. It’s cheaper and wider spread comparing to NFC namecard. What we can do now is start having our contacts on cloud. It’s like a digital profile of yourself. Linked them professionally to your social media and website. It will be useful one day.
Android Beam could be the start and what’s stopping us? No one seems to be interested in this. :(
Bonus
What do you do if your friend ask you for another friend’s phone number? Do you send them only the numbers, or the contact card you have?
Posted on 10 August 2013
Cover image credit: http://www.princessmiharu.net/2012/05/adv-samsung-galaxy-siii-exclusive-media.html
