Posted on 09/03/2014 7:15:40 AM PDT by Citizen Zed
A tiny chip in the upcoming iPhone 6 will bring Apple’s smartphone the ability to use near-field communication (NFC) tech for the first time. With the cellular, WiFi and Bluetooth radios already included, it might seem redundant to add yet another — this one with a range of just a few inches. Odder still, NFC capability is hardly state of the art; Android phones have been offering it for 3 years already. It feels like a case of Apple coming late to the party, but it’s really much more. Without NFC, the iPhone wouldn’t be able to serve as a very good electronic wallet. And reports from Bloomberg and Re/code suggest Apple is going to make a big push around paying with your phone when it launches its new smartphone next week. If so, it will mark the end of a long, strange trip and perhaps the beginning of the true era of mobile payments.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
I’ve had NFC on my Samsung Note 3 for over a year. Is the article pointing out that Apple is catching up to everyone else?
I didn’t know what near-field communication (NFC) was , but, yes, watching Korean tv shows, they’ve shown people using that technology for awhile now.
NFC is pretty much a solution in search of a problem, unless you really love the electronic wallet idea.
I liked my iPhone when I got it. I’m over it now. My daughter has dozens of apps on her iPhone. I have 8.
Fedzilla and the elites would love to see a cashless society.
I’ve had NFC for a while now.. I would not trust my bank account on it.
I just got behind the ear hearing aids the plug fills most of my ear canal, my car is not blue tooth, nor am I likely to see one in the near future with this economy.
I need a ear bud or set with a in line mike to be able to drive hands free. It can’t cover the microphone at the top of my ear. It is not easy even when my phone is in easy reach to answer it, and push all the right buttons while trying to drive.
I have a I Phone 4, standard ear bud jack. I don’t even use half the features.
It is scary, with the new Home Depot Hack info attack.
In what could only be described as a marketing epic fail, Verizon Wireless has named their mobile payments app: ISIS.
Given the inability of current software to withstand hackers, and given also the interest our gubmit has in our personal expenditures, etc, I go the opposite way and predict a surge towards cash purchases.
I’m going back that way, and found it has another advantage...you have much, much more knowledge of how fast you’re spending.
NFC has been a feature of better android phones for almost two years now. Catch up, Apple.
Same here!
NFC is great for quickly sharing information.
However, I don’t want to share my financial data. I don’t bank on the phone, too easy to lose physical control of the device and security of any device is dependent on retention of physical control.
Hopefully, the NFC will be fully utilized and not limited to their digital wallet program.
Now you can have your bank account emptied as you just window shop. Currently you have to be close to get a scan but I suspect someone wearing a receiver will be able to pick up the signal at greater distances. How hackers get in is unknown but they do get in as we know. Phones BREAK all the time. My wallet continues to work without batteries and I can sit on it.
Even my Nokia Windows phone has NFC. Apple has been reduced to playing catch up to the rest. I loved that Samsung Galaxy commercial mocking the iPhone awhile back. The feature divide and catchup attempts are even more noticeable now.
The credit/debit card infrastructure is getting a MASSIVE overhaul next year. Like every point-of-sale register and every card will be replaced with completely new technology, the core being the “smart card” technology common in Europe.
This is a rare opportunity to make additional improvements which otherwise have severe chicken-and-egg problems. NFC allows wireless transactions with a “smart device”, just wave or tap it near the reader. The problem is that retailers don’t want to pony up the extra costs for such registers if NFC won’t be used on a grand scale, and customers don’t want to pony up the extra costs for such devices if NFC won’t be available at most retailers. Yes, some Android devices include NFC, and some POS registers support NFC - but it’s so rare to actually get the two together that neither party finds NFC compelling. BUT ... the iPhone holds a special place in the market, a single product which _dominates_ (somewhere around 50%) the smartphone market, AND has an annual update which a _huge_ percentage (and total number!) of users will update to fast. By including NFC in their next iPhone iteration, they instantly make NFC support at POS registers a worthwhile endeavor for retailers, and give other smartphone makers a compelling reason to include NFC as well where a handful of Android phones didn’t.
I dislike “plastic cards”. 1-3, ok, but the total number of cards I have to carry around is annoying when my omnipresent iPhone could, with one tiny chip included and most POS registers supporting, eliminate entirely. Security risks? c’mon, every time a waiter whisks your card off for processing at a restaurant he can photograph both sides and sell the pictures to his shady pals. NFC might not be absolutely secure (nothing ever is), but coupled with the iPhone’s fingerprint reader it’s _way_ better than a cheap plastic card with 19 human-readable digits of total access to your spending limits.
Apple has always been behind.
Which is odd, because everyone is always trying to catch up. They might get a little ahead, but that’s not where the puck is going.
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