• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, May 11, 2012

Narian Technology will soon begin marketing a Web portal that allows mobile app developers and consumers to create a near-field communication (NFC) application in minutes. The group spearheading the project, the NFC4ALL initiative, encourages the use of NFC technology.

The free app development tools include an NFC Tag Writer App that encodes, secures, and initiates content in one step.

Narian aims to prove that through its tools that a variety of developers and consumers -- from corporations to soccer moms to college rock bands -- can create NFC-enabled apps, according to Einar Rosenberg, Narian’s CEO. In a post on LinkedIn, Rosenberg explained how he hopes the not-for-profit project will help "evangelize and inspire" the use of NFC.

"This is for creating awareness to the 10s of millions and soon to be 100s of millions of people who have NFC phones today," Rosenberg wrote.

Global sales of handsets with NFC-enabled features rose to 30 million units in 2011, and should reach 700 million units in 2016, according to research by Berg Insight.

Some of the creative uses of the site during the beta include developing sign-up lists for a Junior PTA meeting and parent drop-off confirmations at a preschool.

Companies have begun adopting NFC. Google Wallet supports the technology.  Virgin Mobile on Friday said it will launch the LG Optimus Elite this month. The phone will have NFC technology.

Much of the attention to date on NFC has focused on mobile payments, but the technology can enable marketing, advertising, digital content delivery, access control, gaming, device pairing via Bluetooth and location-based services, according to VDC Research Analyst Mike Liard.