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RIM launches NFC-based BlackBerry Tag tap-to-share app

October 10, 2011 — 10:15am ET | By Jason Ankeny

Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) has unveiled BlackBerry Tag, a new Near Field Communications-based solution enabling consumers to share contact information, documents, URLs, photos and related multimedia content simply by bumping their BlackBerry smartphones together. The app also enables BlackBerry Messenger users to instantly add each other as contacts.

Announced by RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie during his keynote presentation at the GITEX conference in Dubai, BlackBerry Tag leverages NFC technologies integrated into the BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 and BlackBerry Curve 9350/9360/9370 smartphones. RIM adds it will incorporate BlackBerry Tag into its next BlackBerry 7 operating system update and will expose the solution to its developer partners, delivering an API enabling any BlackBerry app to integrate tap-to-share functionality.

Balsillie first committed to integrating NFC into future BlackBerry devices while speaking at Mobile World Congress 2011 in February. RIM launched the NFC-equipped Bold models in late summer but has said it is waiting on its operator partners to flesh out their NFC plans before it begins supporting contactless mobile payments.

Content sharing applications like BlackBerry Tag have proven enormously popular across rival mobile platforms. Bump, a tap-to-share app for Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android and Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS, reached the 50 million download milestone last month and boasts more than 10 million active users. The app is now the seventh most downloaded free app for iOS in the U.S. and the third most popular in Japan.

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