(or how to choose what NFC phone to buy!)

So, it's that time of the year now, when I'm due for an upgrade and I have to go out and look for a new mobile phone... 

Having recently lost my iPhone 3GS meant I had to go back to an older 3G - and those of you out there still using that will know just how painfully slow it is nowadays - and I could go on a rant here about it, but I'm just not that type of guy...

I'm not just looking for any phone (but you would have already guessed that) - I want one with NFC (Near-Field Communications) support, so I can start playing with what looks like it will be one of the most exciting features coming to our most personal electronic devices in the next couple of years. It doesn't take much to assume that, given that all the big names out there are behind the technology - as it promises to give them extra revenues by granting them access exactly in the place where every company would like to be - IN their customer's wallets. 

So, seeing as Apple didn't go for rolling out the iPhone 5, which I was expecting to see NFC on, I'm left with only the choice of selecting between an Android, Symbian Belle (the latest Symbian version) or Blackberry phone... I came across a really useful list of the currently available + upcoming phones on the NFC World site here. Do take a look as it's very up-to-date

Symbian Belle

I do appreciate Symbian for what it was, but I'm not ecstatic about Belle (yet anyway), though it does seem like NFC is one of its main selling points. 

I'm not convinced about the user experience either, so Belle - bon soir.

Blackberry

I've never owned a Blackberry - though I did honestly try to adopt one a while back - but again, it's just not my type. 

I don't care how well RIM implements NFC in its phones, but judging on what it made out of BBM (the killer app that could-have-been-but-never-really-was -- wait till you see what will happen with iMessage if you don't get what I mean yet) I'm not getting a Blackberry either. 

Android

Android then. I *do* still think the overall user experience on the iOS is much smoother, and I did truly enjoy using my iPhone (back when it didn't lag like a turtle behind a cheetah) but Android's come a long way and it now offers some really useful standard features that Apple still doesn't (most recent example for me being today's agenda / upcoming todo on the lock screen which you can only do on a jailbroken iPhone). Add to the everyday use a better development environment, a much broader variety of mobile phone models and price ranges, and it all adds up to a pretty good package!

iOS

Apple - sorry. I do appreciate what you're doing with Siri and location-based reminders and ads, and everything (including cool things like the iCloud - by the way, I was actually looking into mobile application web hosting in the cloud in the past week and am preparing a post about it as soon as I get round to it in the next couple of days. You see mobile app usage can change dramatically overnight and this sort of thing demands a solution that can support mobile apps, etc - more in the upcoming post...)