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CHAPTER 2. STATE OF THE ART
2.1.5
NFC-Enabled Mobile Phones
NFC is reaching more people thanks to its integration within, mainly, mobile
phones. Two or three years ago very few people would have known what is about.
On the contrary, now NFC is a characteristic that is being included in the best
devices and people look for. It will not be too hazard to say almost every mobile
phone manufacturer has some NFC-enabled phone among their products.
The main obstacle NFC has encounter to spread even more has been the lack
of support from Apple, who decided not to include it in the new iPhone5. This
fact may have delayed the awaited final boom of NFC.
Lists with all NFC handsets are available[15] in which you can find every existing device. In the following subsection a classification of NFC mobile phones has
been made with some examples. The criteria followed to divide them has been the
operating system, which has become the most important reason to buy one mobile
phone or a different one.
2.1.5.1
Symbian Phones
The first NFC-enabled mobile phones that hit the market were the Nokia running on its own operating system, Symbian. The pioneer was the Nokia 6131
NFC[15]. By the time it was a big revolution and many handsets were expected
to follow it. However Symbian was about to lose its popularity and market share
in favour of Android and iOS devices, costing Nokia to fight against bankrupt.
Nowadays Symbian is almost abandoned. Two of the last released NFC Symbian
mobile phones can be viewed in figure 2.8.
(a) Nokia 603
(b) Nokia C7
Figure 2.8: Symbian NFC mobile phones
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