I just got news through from the team at RIM confirming the imminent launch of BlackBerry Tag. The all new Bold, Torch and Curve models feature integrated NFC features — which haven’t really been exploited as yet.
The new ‘Tag’ function arrives with the upcoming BlackBerry OS 7 update and will enable users to tap-n-share multimedia content between their devices — I think this is a little like what we’ve previously seen with the likes of the HP Touchpad and Palm devices.
Here’s the overview from RIM:
During his keynote presentation at the GITEX conference in Dubai, Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) Co-CEO Jim Balsillie today unveiled a new way for BlackBerry® smartphone users to connect with one another and share multimedia content.
BlackBerry® Tag, which will be incorporated in the next BlackBerry® 7 OS update*, will allow users to share contact information, documents, URLs, photos and other multimedia content by simply tapping their BlackBerry smartphones together. BlackBerry Tag will also enable friends to instantly add one another as contacts on BBM™ (BlackBerry® Messenger).
“BlackBerry Tag is an exciting and innovative feature that makes sharing contact information and multimedia content effortless and seamless,” said Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “BlackBerry Tag opens a new dimension to the BlackBerry platform that is powerful, simple and intuitive and we think it will be welcomed by both users and developers.”
BlackBerry Tag takes advantage of Near Field Communications (NFC) technology included in the recently launched BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900/9930 and BlackBerry® Curve™ 9350/9360/9370 smartphones, and these are the first BlackBerry smartphones that will support BlackBerry Tag.
RIM also announced plans to expose BlackBerry Tag through APIs on the BlackBerry platform, allowing software developers to take advantage of “tap to share” functionality from within their own applications.
We need to see more and more of this from RIM. This could potentially make my BlackBerry rather useful for swapping stuff quickly. Of course, I need the other folk around to want to buy BlackBerries *so* that I can use this. More please RIM!
I’m looking forward to the software update.
