A new iPhone is shipping in a few months, so that naturally means that there is talk of the new Apple device including NFC capabilities. This time, the claims come via website NoWhereElse.fr, which claims that the above printed circuit board is a legitimate iPhone 6 part that includes an NFC chip and an 802.11ac WiFi card among the usual other components. Why would Apple include NFC, an old technology far inferior to Bluetooth Low Energy? I’m not sure, so don’t count on it happening. You can see from the image above that the iPhone 6 part is quite similar to the current iPhone’s variant, and today’s leak does not tell us much more about what we already know is coming: a thinner, lighter device, with a larger and higher-resolution display, new sensors, and a faster processor. We’ve reported that at least the upcoming 4.7-inch model will take its bow in mid-September, while the 5.5-inch version is shipping later.
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No Frickin’ Chance!? ;)
My guess is that they are doing it because NFC capabilities would make the phone a mega hit in places like japan, where a lot of the society (I believe) fully embraces the use of the smartphone and how it can interact with other systems.
It’s everywhere here in Canada!!
I really hope this year it happens…
Probably because NFC is already well established in Japan, where people use their phones as a payment device and as a SUICA card. In Europe NFC is also well established and embedded in every credit card and many SUICA like travel cards (such as Oyster cards on the Tube).
Do not confuse NFC with chip technology, NFC is in very few cards in Europe, chips are.
Correct.. I see this a lot.. Many assume that the CC Chip is exactly the same.. it’s not.. Similar but very different in implementation and much more supported than ‘smartphone’ NFC .. which even EU is not on-board with because of security issues..
You CC Chip cannot get malware.. your /cough “android’ smartphone very easily can.. and so can iOS, in a limited and likely jailbroken way. ;)
Every bank cards in France has NFC embedded today.
I live in Canada and we have both Chip & Pin cards as well as NFC powered ‘Tap-to-Pay.’
NFC is currently winning ground in Europe. Tap to Pay is heavily advertised. Most Banks have the ability to issue combined chip and pin / NFC credit-debit cards.
NFC is in a large number of card terminals here in the US, Bluetooth is in none. Plus international usage. NFC is substantially different from Bluetooth in the range, it has to be “near” the terminal, Bluetooth range makes ease dropping much easier.
NFC will also be required in all payment terminals by October 2015, or the merchant will be out to fend for themselves for any fraud from their point-of-sale machines. So the idea that Apple could push forth everyone in the world to use Bluetooth LE (regardless of whether it’s superior or not, which it’s not for payments) makes me wonder if Mark did his research or is simply spouting uninformed opinions.
NFC and Bluetooth aren’t competing technologies. There’s certainly some overlap in functionality, but they both do different things better than the others. The issue with NFC for most phones up to this point is Samsung, Google, and other competitors have done a poor job of finding valid uses of the technology while touting how great of a feature it is. I’ve watched coworkers try to use it to transfer small amounts of data across devices and it is relatively tedious for how simple it should be. For transferring data, Apple’s solution (Airdrop) is a better concept (unfortunately it is far from perfect, too).
The moment Apple has a good use of the technology, they will suddenly be more optimistic about it and include it. Apple’s distaste for NFC has been more of a statement against NFC as an Android lame-duck selling point and not NFC as a technology. As others have pointed out, NFC is used a lot in other countries like Japan for public transit (where the iPhone has a HUGE install base) which is reason alone for including it.
I’m hopeful that they’ll find some other great uses for it. I would like the ability to tap a device or beacon to use NFC to create a connection over an ad-hoc wifi network. Then, data could transfer over wifi very quickly. Kind of another entry point for Airdrop (i.e. Either find them nearby using the device UI or simply tap the devices together). Anyway, its always nice to have more tools in developers’ toolkits rather than fewer. It would also be a nice way of logging into a Mac or taking control of an Apple TV with your iTunes account. Sure, these could be done using the device UI- but there’s something to be said about the simplicity of someone just tapping a device to another- especially for the less savvy users.
Please let it be truth. I live in Europe and pretty much every shop I go to has NFC card reader.
“…NFC, an old technology far inferior to Bluetooth Low Energy”
You might want to actually read about what they are if you’re going to make ignorant statements like that.
it is great that they can tell us that the next iPhone will have NFC solely based on an UNPOPULATED board.
Here in Hong Kong, it is a surprise if I cannot use NFC to pay.