Motorola looking to deploy NFC in smartphones

Motorola sizing up NFC technology
Motorola sizing up NFC technology

Motorola has confirmed to TechRadar that it's looking to add NFC to its smartphones in the future when it believes the market is ready.

Paul Nicholson, product marketing director for Motorola Mobility, said the company was currently looking at addressing the security concerns with the technology:

"It's about finding the right point in time for NFC. We're clearly looking to deploy an initiative in that area when that time comes.

"It's going to be next big thing in the smartphone world, enabling users to get rid of their wallet and car keys and just have it in a smartphone."

Security top priority

"However, consumers' main concerns are about security, and we're looking hard at those elements. When the time's right, we will deploy it, but we're still evaluating what the implications are."

Nicholson declined to give an exact time frame, despite other manufacturers saying that the technology was going to be big over the next 12 months, stating that for nearly a decade he'd heard that the technology was coming and it was still yet to fully materialise.

However Motorola has conducted trials into this area over the years, and has a patent portfolio to back it up - so if NFC takes off it wouldn't be a big ask for the renaissance company to becoming involved in a big way.

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief


Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.