Another new technology is starting to make inroads in a number of wireless gadgets, especially in the European market—Near Field Communications (NFC). The technology is primarily being used for e-payments and small-scale data transfers of up to 1 Mbit/sec over a few feet.

Users touch two NFC devices to establish a link, which gets round complex addressing problems. Putting devices close together is good enough, but proponents believe touching will come more naturally to people.

NFC is already used in Radio Frequency Identification devices (RFID), employed increasingly for 'smart' product tags in shops and for etickets.

Client devices, in the 'passive' form of the technology, do not need a power supply as they draw their energy from the reader's RF signal.

Nokia, Philips and Sony said at Cebit they are setting up a non-profit NFC Forum to promote use of the technology which has been endorsed by Visa for payments.