0 Review | iPhone 5 to include Mastercard for NFC

It’s a pretty safe bet that the iPhone will be getting an NFC chip sometime soon. Though Near Field Communications haven’t found a lot of customer adoption yet, merchants are getting prepared for it. Perhaps the biggest piece of the puzzle that’s missing is Apple. If Tim Cook takes the stage and tells the world about how easy iPayments (or whatever they call them) are, then NFC will have officially arrived.

Some recent signs are pointing to 2012 as possibly being the year that Apple makes that leap and adds an NFC chip to the iPhone. Additionally, there are hints that we may even know who Apple is partnering with for its mobile payments.

Last week at Macworld, an app developer raised some eyebrows by pushing NFC capabilities in his iPhone app. When asked why he would bother doing this, the developer said that he had no knowledge of hardware but had spoken to iOS engineers who are “heavy into NFC.” He said that he was confident enough in Apple’s adoption of NFC that he was willing to stake his app’s development on it.

In a separate incident, a rep from Mastercard’s Paypass NFC system said “I don’t know of a handset manufacturer that isn’t the process of making sure their stuff is Paypass ready.” When asked whether that list includes Apple, the rep may as well have confirmed it:

“Um, there are… like I say, [I don't know of] any handset maker out there. Now, when we have discussions with our partners, and they ask us not to disclose them, we don’t.”

That sounds like someone who’s trying to brag as much as he can without breaking an NDA (non-disclosure agreement). Of course it’s possible that this was some clever gaming of reporters to garner buzz, but we’d say there’s a good chance that Paypass will be partering with Apple for the iPhone 5.

Of course Verizon famously blocked Google from allowing its Google Wallet NFC payment system on the Galaxy Nexus. Carrier politics are always an issue, but Apple is another story. Wireless providers need the iPhone on their networks, and Apple knows it. That’s not a guarantee that they will allow an Apple NFC payment system on the next iPhone, but negotiating power is in no short supply in Cupertino.

Review | iPhone 5 to include Mastercard for NFC 9out of 10 based on 100 ratings. 9 user reviews.