With the launch of the iPad 2 now in the rear-view mirror, all eyes turn to the iPhone 5, which is widely expected to arrive in June. Unfortunately, if you’re excited by recent rumors of near-field communication (NFC) technology on the next Apple handset, you may have a bit of a wait.
9to5Mac is reporting that contact-free mobile payments may not be coming to the iPhone 5 this year after all. According to a report from The Independent, Apple has notified European carriers that their next handset will not include near-field communication (NFC) technology as widely rumored in recent months.
NFC has gotten quite a bit of press recently, and a chip enabling the technology is embedded in Google’s latest Nexus S Android handset. NFC enables such magic as contact-free payment with a cell phone, in theory eliminating a stack of credit cards from your wallet and potentially even a key ring full of retail store membership loyalty cards.
The report claims that Apple has gotten cold feet about NFC, claiming there is currently a “lack of a clear standard across the industry.” However, that doesn’t mean that the company has abandoned the technology, and could be working on their own system for launch in 2012.
“Apple is understood to be working on its own NFC proposition, which would link payments through iTunes,” the report claims. “It hopes to introduce the technology in a handset likely to be released next year.”
Looks like we should all scratch one cool feature off our iPhone 5 wish list, at least for now…
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(Image courtesy of 9to5Mac)
