BlackBerry has announced that its new OS7 will include the facility to share files, contacts, docs and more between handsets, which are NFC enabled. RIM has been adding NFC chips to it’s higher end Curve and Bold models since the spring this year. They are not the only company to show an interest in Contactless technologies in mobile. Orange, in conjunction with Barclay card launched a Samsung NFC phone in 2011. Google has also firmly shown their commitment to NFC with their wallet.

However, BlackBerry is the first to promote the file sharing aspect of the technology. Outside of the business market, their key demographic are younger users (it’s all about BBM), and the presence of P2P-based file sharing will set well with that audience. It was this demographic that made use of Bluetooth for file sharing in the days when Nokia were still making phones. BlackBerry Tag looks set to replace that for their users. VFC has been slow to roll out, but could BlackBerry tag do for contactless what BBM did for IM on mobile?

Although not primarily aimed at mobile marketing, this initiative could help open things up for that market. The company will include a developer API to allow third party integration with the ‘tap to share’ function. Look out for a ‘tap’ to do download poster in the near future.