Connecting Mobile Phones to the Internet of Things: A Discussion of Compatibility Issues Between EPC and NFC

Near Field Communication devices and Electronic Product Code tags are two important RFID based solutions which have matured to market-readiness within the last years. Though both standards are based on the same technological foundation, there are some significant differences as to the goals that their developers intend to achieve through their use. Mobile phones are the most popular personal devices world-wide, with roughly three billion units in operation as of 2006. Market researchers are anticipating that by 2012 20% of all sold phones will be NFC enabled. With 300 million NFC phones sold in 2012, mobile phones would become the largest infrastructure of RFID readers world wide. On the other side, EPC tags will steadily become more available on logistical units and consumer products. The fact that more than a billion consumers might be equipped with NFC enabled mobile phones by 2015 raises the question whether the compatibility of EPC item level tags to these devices would not offer significant benefits. Against this background, this contribution investigates the drivers and barriers of a fusion of NFC and EPC technology, and discusses the resulting potential from a business perspective.