Speculators at Apple hint the iPhone 5 will be NFC enabled.
iPhone 5 which runs on iOS 6 has an app called Passbook for users to pay for their boarding passes, store gift cards and coupons.
The Passbook app is a virtual wallet and uses location-based services to help users organise and pay for their coffee, boarding passes and movie tickets all at once, which analysts say, Apple is likely to integrate NFC in the iPhone 5 for the app to function properly.
Jim Peters, CTO of SITA opinionatedly says in a blog post at 9to5mac.com that Apple is going to incorporate NFC into Passbook and not just Apple. He adds that by the end of the year, the majority of smartphones on the market will have NFC on them.
“If in October the next iPhone comes out and it has NFC on it, it’s game over,” he said.
Another report still from the 9to5mac.com says some two people with knowledge of the inner workings of a coming iteration of the Apple iPhone –- a chip made by Qualcomm for the phone’s processor — will also include near-field communication technology, N.F.C.
N.F.C technology enables short-range wireless communications between the phone and an N.F.C reader which and can be used to make mobile payments. It is unclear which version of an iPhone this technology would be built into.
Apple’s iPhone 5 runs on iOS 6 and has a Passbook, an app that lets users access boarding passes, movie tickets, retail coupons, loyalty cards from their favourite shopping stores and restaurants.
The NFC presence also makes the passbook easier to use-Apple vision of simplifying technology.
