Nokia recently launched its new smartphones, the Nokia 700 and 701, which apart from the usual features the phones also offer NFC (Near Field Communication) connectivity. Interestingly, Nokia did not choose to keep them as mere vestigial features (RIM's new Blackberry phones also feature NFC) waiting for the eco-system to evolve, but instead marketed them with NFC tags for apps at its stores and phone packaging. It also collaborated with the makers of the movie Ra.One, and PayMate, which offers mobile payments in India to offer related content including ringtones and wallpapers, through the use of NFC tags. We spoke with Ajay Adiseshann, founder and MD of PayMate, who informed MediaNama that the Ra.One NFC campaign costed $100,000 and was the first step to introduce NFC in the Indian market. The Ra.One campaign: PayMate installed 20,000 tags across Nokia outlets, shopping malls and movie theatres. The software which talks to NFC hardware i.e a terminal and the tag, has been developed by PayMate, while the hardware was picked up from overseas manufacturers. While the downloads in this campaign were free, the same mechanism could be also used for paid downloads. Banking on Content: Adiseshann reiterates that content is an interesting space to debut NFC since friction is less and there is no baggage associated with retail payments. Organised retail outlet payments is the next step, however he insists that voice and IVR will remain the preferred channels for mobile payments. Infact, Adiseshann feels that the potential of NFC based physical retail of content is…
