Proxama Blog

Apple and NFC

With more of the industry's big players showing their full support of NFC, including  TfL accepting NFC payments from 2012 and Paypal's recent unveiling of Android-Android payments, the technology seems to be growing more popular by the day.

But what about Apple?

There's no denying that Apple is a key player in the industry, with many iPhone and iPad owners incredibly loyal to the brand. There have been rumours circulating over the last year on whether Apple will introduce NFC to it's next generation of iPhones and iPads. Some have claimed that Apple's next phone, the iPhone 5, will include the technology but insiders at Apple were quick to squash this rumour. However, only weeks later talk of an NFC iPhone picked up again. Generally speaking, the guys at Apple have kept pretty schtum about their NFC plans, and if they are going to showcase the technology on the iPhone5, we probably won't know for sure until it's release date (likely to be September/ October 2011).

But can Apple afford not to include NFC technology? One of Apple's strengths is that they offer groundbreaking firsts with their products. When a technology has so much support from competitors, is it likely that Apple will pass it by?

NFC rumours have released a great infographic on the subject, which you can have a look at here.

Maybe NFC won't be in the iPhone 5. Apple like to be first at things and Google pipped them to the post on this one (followed closely by Nokia). Now that Apple won't be the first to showcase the technology, perhaps they have decided to hold back, planning even bigger things with it. I'm pretty certain it will appear in iphones over the next few years but for the moment we're being kept in suspense.

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2 Comments. Posted by Chantal 14 July 2011

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Thanks for the link to the infographic, much appreciated. If Apple does wait, it may find itself having to break in to an industry rather than dominating one which is very un-Applesque (new word). With billions on the line I am not sure they will want to risk it. It is also very strange that rumors suggest that the iPod, iPad and iPhone are all being updated at the same time. Two of those products are out of the normal schedule which could mean that Apple is intending to hit NFC hard. Although the signs look dubious, I wouldn’t be totally shocked if an NFC iPhone didn’t appear in September.

Apple embracing NFC has impacts far beyond Apple and could ignite the whole industry.

- Posted by Seth Planck  on  07/14  at  07:51 PM

Apple pushed Bluetooth 4.0 directly, after joining Bluetooth SIG two months later, Apple launched the first Bluetooth 4.0 Air laptop and Mac mini host. Does it really give up NFC?
iPhone

- Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  08/16  at  06:22 AM

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