As you may remember it was rumored throughout much of 2011 that Apple would be building near field communication (NFC) technology in future iPhone models. Obviously, NFC technology did not make it’s way to the iPhone 4S, but a new piece from Fast Company claims that, in an interview with a Mastercard executive, Apple could be working with credit card companies at the moment in order implement the feature.
To be specific, Mastercard did not admit to working with Apple on NFC, but rather gave a non-answer, answer in which they covered their ass by claiming confidentiality agreements were in the way. In other words, they are working with Apple on this technology and corresponding agreements, but can’t talk about it.
NFC allows users to use their device as a credit card of sorts. With NFC terminals installed in stores, the customer can pay for a transaction with a wave of a card. Building NFC into an iPhone, would effectively turn the device into a digital wallet. Further proof that Apple is interested in user transitions, the company recently rolled out a new self-checkout system in their retail stores, that utilizes a customer’s iTunes account to speed up checkout. NFC could be used to further improve the speed of the transactions.
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TAGS: near field communication, next-generation iPhone, nfc
