NFC has not made its way into the latest Apple device, causing many to question the technology.
Near field communication technology (NFC) has already been facing a great deal of struggle to get started, and now this would-be standard for mobile payments has taken another blow with the announcement that the chips are not embedded into the iPhone 5.
Now, the prospect of using smartphones as wallets is becoming more heavily questioned.
Advocates of NFC had high hopes that Apple would give its endorsement. They were greatly disappointed, though, when they discovered that the latest of its devices would not be including the technology.
NFC mobile payments allow contactless transactions to occur through encrypted data.
In the case of mobile payments, the information is securely transferred from a smartphone to a reader device for the same results as swiping a credit card. Simply waving a phone at a checkout terminal would complete the purchase of products or services.
This technology has already been heavily supported by the biggest credit card companies and American carriers. However, as NFC has not yet been widely adopted among smartphone owners, merchants across the country have hesitated to spend the money give their checkout terminals the necessary upgrades to accept these mobile payments.
According to Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analyst, Sanjay Sakhrani, “Anyone hoping NFC would be a reality soon is disappointed.” This news of Apple’s failure to use the technology was quite shocking to many. Sakhrani went on to state that “Many in the industry were hoping inclusion in the iPhone would be a springboard for more adoption. This takes the impetus away.”
The uses for NFC technology extend well beyond mobile payments. However, it is in that industry where it was expected to make its biggest mark. It is supported by the massive mobile wallet venture called ISIS, the joint project of AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile USA. That wallet already includes financial services partner giants such as Capital One Financial, American Express, and JPMorgan Chase.
Though the potential for NFC mobile payments is tremendous, until it is incorporated into the devices by smartphone manufacturers such as Apple, it will face notable struggles taking off in the United States and around the world.
