NFC TIMES Exclusive – While NFC tag suppliers and other NFC backers rejoiced over Apple’s recent announcement that it would support NFC tag reading with its next mobile operating system, iOS 11, early indications are that tag reading with Apple NFC devices will not be as open as with Android devices, and the user experience will not be as simple.
That has led to at least a couple of tag suppliers and market experts–while still praising Apple’s decision to open up its NFC controllers to tag reading–to express some frustration over how Apple apparently plans to enable its devices to read tags.
Unlike Android devices, Apple devices will require an app to read tags, and this app will have to be open and running in the foreground when the user taps the tag, under the beta version of iOS 11 and Core NFC developer documents. Yet another step will require users to press a button on the screen or take other action to tell the Apple device to read the tag.