Looks like you won’t be able to make payments with iPhone5

March 15, 2011

One of the big features that was supposed to come out in the new iPhone that will be announced later this year is the ability to make payments with your phone, well it looks like that isn’t going to be happening after all. The news came down from several sources at some of the largest mobile operators in the UK. When asked they said that they were told by Apple that they wouldn’t be including Near Field Communication (NFC) technology ,which enables payment for products with a wave of your phone on a reader, in the latest version of the iPhone, be it the iPhone 4GS or the iPhone 5.

One source privy to the information said; “The new iPhone will not have NFC, Apple told the operators it was concerned by the lack of a clear standard across the industry.” Yet Apple is understood to be working on its own NFC proposition, which would link payments through iTunes. It hopes to introduce the technology in a handset likely to be released next year.

Consulting group Frost & Sullivan believes payment values via NFC will hit €110bn by 2015 and Google chief executive Eric Schmidt recently said the technology would “revolutionize payments”. This year has seen Google launch the Nexus S, which contains NFC technology, and the short-range wireless technology was backed by the GSMA, the mobile industry trade body last month.

Chairman Franco Bernabe said it represents “an important innovation opportunity, and will facilitate a wide range of services and applications”.

Yet the stakeholders, from mobile operators and handset makers to retailers are not agreed on the standards for widespread adoption. Carolina Milanesi, analyst at Gartner, said: “Nokia has talked about this for years and nothing happened. When Google and Apple talk about it, NFC will happen.”