In his presentation at GITEX in Dubai, Research In Motion (RIM) co-CEO Jim Balsillie announced a new application that will allow BlackBerry® smartphone customers to connect with each other and share the content on their mobile phones. This new feature is called BlackBerry® Tag and is built into the new Os7 firmware update.

BlackBerry® Tag will allow mobile customers to share their contact info, URL’s, documents, photos, songs and any other multimedia content stored on their phones, by simply tapping two BlackBerry smartphones together. It will also allow you to add someone onto your BlackBerry Messenger (BBM™) account. This feature makes the process of transferring information between handset effortless and unlocks the possibilities what else can achieved with this technology.

To achieve this effortless transfer, RIM has taken advantage of the NFC (Near Field Communications) technology that is built into the recently launched BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900/9930, and the BlackBerry® Curve™ 9350/9360/9370/ 9380 smartphones.

RIM is taking the lead and allowing developers to tap into the BlackBerry® Tag, through API’s on their platform so that the tap-to-share function can used within third party  applications. It is clear that NFC and tap to share technology is here is to stay. But how long before consumers trust the technology enough to rip up their plastic credit cards and adopt wireless payment technology?