The Nokia N9 is the talk of the town right now as it packs in so many great hardware innovations with NFC being just one. But how can we make the most of it? Join us as we look at five ingenious ways to use Nokia N9 and NFC.

NFC (Near Field Communication) hasn’t gone mainstream yet but it’s expected to in the next year or two. We’ve already seen it in the Nokia C7 and it’s also present in the Nokia N9, so we’ll hopefully see it in more future Nokia smartphones.

Check out our Nokia N9 hands-on

Not all the features here are yet enabled in the Nokia ecosystem, so there is a degree of speculation. With that in mind, we thought it would be fun to take a look at how it’s being used, and more importantly, how we can expect to use it in the coming months and years.

Nokia N9 and Service initiation
This is likely to be the most common use for NFC, in that it allows you to tap your Nokia N9 against an NFC tag and specific service information will appear. This could be the URL to a website, information about a product, someone’s Contact detail, virtually anything that has been pre-coded into the tag.

One great use for this is the ‘Smart Poster’, which has already been showcased in many cities around the world. The NFC tag has been embedded in the poster and when you touch it with your Nokia the tag starts a video stream, opens a web browser, or asks the user if he or she wants to place a telephone call. Location specific content at your fingertips!

Nokia N9 and Connecting devices
Connecting different devices to your Nokia N9 has to be a top priority. Nokia has announced a new range of NFC-enabled accessories, such as the Nokia Play 360 and Nokia Wireless Music Receiver MD-31, which allow you to set up an instant connection with your Nokia N9. All you have to do is touch the top of the Play 360  speaker box with your Nokia N9 and an instant connection is made, allowing you to stream the music from your smartphone out and around the room. This method is so much smoother and easier than current wireless methods.

Nokia N9 and Sharing
We’re all used to the idea of sharing information through a peer-to-peer link and this is something NFC has the ability to make a little more personal. This could be as basic as two NFC devices sharing business cards. The trick here is that the NFC link instigates the link and the communication but it is the Bluetooth in your Nokia N9 that will carry out the sharing of data.

Nokia N9 and Tickets
Have Nokia N9 will travel is the idea here, as the use of NFC means you’ll be able to replace your physical ticket simply by presenting your smartphone to the ticket reader for it to register. This feature hasn’t yet been enabled in Nokia smartphones but the thought is that it’ll work like current top-up tickets, so you’ll be able to refill your account and the Nokia N9 will handle all the security, For example, the secure tools run the ticketing application, which may, keep track of remaining travel time or prepaid journeys.

Nokia N9 and Payments
OK, this feature hasn’t yet been enabled in the Nokia N9 but in theory, NFC means you’ll be able to use your smartphone as though it were a credit card, making payments for good and services around the world. The NFC-enabled phone acts as a contactless card (chip-based credit card) to the payment terminal (reader) and so operates in card emulation mode. Wherever NFC is supported you’ll simply need to pass your Nokia N9 over the terminal and the payment will be automatically enacted. The real magic in the deal is that the Nokia N9 implements the security, so running payment applications similar to the applications on normal chip-based credit cards.

There you have it, the Nokia N9 is ready to take you into a brave new world of NFC, what do you think? Let us know in the Comments below.