NFC which stands for Near Field Communication is quite useful technology among smartphones. It helps to perform various contactless functions such as connecting accessories like headphones with Bluetooth and much more. It helps to share files via Android beam and users can even use programmable NFC chips to perform various features. Amid these useful features, various manufacturers in Asia is resisting to power their devices with NFC.
As per a Mobile Overview report by ScientiaMobile, manufacturers like Xiaomi, LG, Alcatel, and Oppo are not using the NFC in their devices. Mainly, they have reduced the addition of NFC chips in the devices designed for the Asian region. As per the official data, LG had reduced the usage of NFC chips from 69% in 2015 to 55% in 2018. Similarly, Xiaomi’s share of NFC enabled devices have decreased from 11.9% to 8.85% this year.
Moreover, Oppo had reduced the share to at least 3% from 28% in 2018. Well, the decrease is significant in Asian markets due to some reasons. As per the report, the reduction is seen in these brands because they ship their most of devices to east Asian markets. These markets are not mature enough for the high-end devices, the mid-range and entry-level devices rule here. The removal of NFC from devices reduces the cost of the device by a few dollars.
Even though, countries like India and China use QR codes more often rather than the NFC chips. Many payment services like WeChat Pay, PayTM, UPI and Alipay are prominent in these countries for payments. These companies decline in NFC usage is due to their penetration into the developing markets.
On the other hand, manufacturers like Huawei, Motorola, HTC, Sony and Apple tremendously improved the NFC availability across their devices.
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Overall, the trend of NFC usage is quite prominent in the Western world rather than the East Asian countries. Due to various constraints, the NFC usage is quite limited in developing countries. So, the overall decline in mobile phones with NFC has considerably reduced over time.
(Via)
