Microsoft Hardware Working On NFC Peripherals

I came across a trademark filed on March 12th this year the description and explanation of which are quite intriguing. The trademark has no image attached to it but describes an icon and the description is pretty straightforward:

Computers and computer peripherals featuring near field communication (NFC) connectivity; computer software for providing near field communication (NFC) connectivity

My first thought was this has something to do with Windows Phone and NFC support but if as I re-read the description I believe Microsoft Hardware will announce PC/phone peripherals supporting NFC connectivity. Something similar to Nokia’s recently announced portable Hi-Fi speakers, perhaps.

The trademark explains a logo or an icon for this range of devices and based on the text this is what it will look like:

The NFC consortium has their own logo for NFC certified devices:

The Windows team’s Facebook social media team shared a weird image of a hardware device yesterday and while I’m not placing any bets, this could be a NFC capable projector that plays nice with Windows.

Update: Here’s the official trademark logo: