NFC is dead. Forget about it - it is the 3D of merchant payments.Apple killed NFC.
Apple's Passbook solution simply works for merchants without having to buy new equipment.
Starbucks, for example, works fine without NFC.
The key negative about NFC is that merchants will have to spend thousands of dollars per store to buy new equipment to handle NFC. This is a huge negative.
Apple sees no need for NFC and lots of problems with NFC.
Since everyone else is following Apple's lead - including Samsung and Google - no NFC for Apple means NFC is dead.
Apple's fingerprint sensor technology further kills NFC. There simply is no need for NFC.
We could ask Siri if Apple just killed NFC, but she'll probably tell us that no, Apple did not kill the National Football Conference. If we tell her that not including NFC in the iPhone 5 doesn't seem very consumer friendly to us, she'll probably send us Apple's Passbook app. Oh that Siri.
As Soup says, Apple is very leery of cutting edge. Gorilla glass and LTE are notable.
BTW, I think you should look at it this way: if Apple backs something, then it becomes popular. If Apple doesn't back something, it just means it is holding back until it can make itself look good doing it.
You have to dive below the hype Sarah and see the wood not the trees. Your articles are usually informative and balanced, so I am going to put this 1 down to a low "starbucks" day.
Apple has never been a edgy innovator. They would like to sell you that story and if you buy that narrative then they are very happy! Reality is that they adopt a fast follower with a focused USP around user experience.
I think they dont know what standard will win and are not in the gambling mood, because the judgement call between teh competing systems is too close to call.
I think we're in agreement that Apple isn't the trailblazer, but it is the company that takes a lot of technologies mainstream. My point was that it could've done the same for NFC. I don't blame them for not including it given the current state of the market, but I maintain that it's disappointing for the ecosystem because it could've kickstarted it.
I guess I don't understand why its wonderful to have a card that can be stolen (and acts like cash) or a phone to be hacked to pay my bills wirelessly by waving them at a machine. Imagine a hacked POS device.
I just think both are just so likely to add to theft that before we get convenience happy that we need to think through the security aspects.
I'm not convinced about NFC in phones for payments. The new Visa cards in UK have a thing called contactless payment. You touch your card to a machine and pay for goods without entering a PIN.
It some ways it seems better than using a phone to do the same thing. Maybe a phone would be more secure (if you set a password?).
Apple's Passbook solution simply works for merchants without having to buy new equipment.
Starbucks, for example, works fine without NFC.
The key negative about NFC is that merchants will have to spend thousands of dollars per store to buy new equipment to handle NFC. This is a huge negative.
Apple sees no need for NFC and lots of problems with NFC.
Since everyone else is following Apple's lead - including Samsung and Google - no NFC for Apple means NFC is dead.
Apple's fingerprint sensor technology further kills NFC. There simply is no need for NFC.