Comments on: NFC Technology Not Coming to Next-Generation iPhone

By: Nikki

Nikki — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 16:40:48 +0000

Apple is notorious for not caring if a technology is widely adopted before adding it to their own hardware – FireWire, for example. So I don’t buy that excuse about NFC at all. Besides, the reason why contactless payments is not ubiquitous across retail is because nobody has phones that can pay that way – at least in the US. That’s a basic chicken & egg problem that the phone manufacturers are going to have to solve first.

However Apple also has made many attempt to set a standard which didn’t really catch on (hello, FireWire). So I hope you’re wrong that NFC is not included, and I hope even more that whatever they eventually decide to include isn’t some Betamax version of what NFC ought to be – technically superior, but not widely adopted. James is right – NFC isn’t just about payments, but even so, I think the world of mobile payments is going to be settled in the next year. Apple can either be ahead of that, or behind it with the iPhone 5.

By: James Wester

James Wester — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 14:55:29 +0000

Regardless of whether the iPhone 5 has NFC on it, some basics about the technology are required.

First: NFC is NOT about payments at this stage. There are dozens of use cases for NFC-enabled phones that have nothing to do with payments. NFC and mobile payments are NOT the same thing and Apple knows that.

Second: If you live in the U.S. then you HAVE “walked into a retailer that offers an NFC payment system.” Anywhere you can pay with contactless you can pay with NFC. That means every Macy’s, Subway, McDonald’s, CVS, Walgreens and dozens more allow you to tap a phone and pay.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 23:27:02 +0000

The front isn’t completely covered with metal.