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Recently Apple announced Passbook, a new mobile wallet that will debut in iOS. Its existence prompted speculation that future iPhones will include NFC — and now 9to5mac is reporting that new iPhone prototypes feature the technology.
9to5mac has previously analysed data from two new prototype iPhones, codenamed N41AP and N42AP. But their latest investigation reveals that those same prototypes appear to have Near Field Communication (NFC) controllers directly connected to the power management unit (PMU).
Among the massive speculation about what the next iPhone will look like, the small inclusion of NFC perhaps seems trivial. But if the rumour turns out to be correct, it will see Apple poisitoning itself in direct competition with Google Wallet and another similar service unveiled by Microsoft last week.
If Apple follows its usual release patterns, then we won’t see an actual iPhone 5 until October. Will it feature NFC? Maybe, maybe not. But you can be sure that, if it does, Apple’s take on mobile payment could be enough to force the concept into the mainstream. [9to5mac]
Believe it or not, current-gen iPhones have NFC capability within them. What I mean is, their software has the capacity they just lack the hardware (which is probably just a different battery). Don’t ask how I know, don’t even trust this comment until you hear more but currently various vendors are testing using current iPhones.
How would a different battery give NFC capability?
Look at the likes of the Galaxy Nexus and the NFC stuff is in the battery (as well as the device itself, but the important bit is in the battery). There is some sort of “extra” that you have to get direct from Apple to enable the NFC of the iphone. I don’t know if it’s just a software upgrade, a hardware upgrade/change or an entirely different device, I just presumed it was a different battery based on my above experiences (I don’t own an iphone so I didn’t know the battery wasn’t replaceable). I haven’t seen an NFC iPhone myself, but I have seen test logs from one.
Note: I work in the EMV industry, which is a fancy way of saying contactless payments. I’ve probably said too much as it is, it’s just not much of a secret in our office which is why I’m surprised nobody else has come forward to mention it. To be honest, we were surprised when the 4S didn’t have it because it’s been in testing for months now.
NFC does require some hardware component yes but this doesn’t have to be in the ‘battery’ and considering iphone batteries are not user replaceable saying it needs a different battery is rather moot.
What would be more interesting to know if if it’s linked to it’s own secure location in which to store the cryptographic keys (and do the encryption) used to authenticate payments or will it link to the SIM as mobile operators want. I think due to it being apple and they hate the SIM it’ll be it’s own location and that then brings in more issues…
Your right. The current models can have NFC Added by placing a sticker with the NFC chip inside or a case over the iPhone.
Example:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/27/iphone-4-gets-stuck-with-nfc-sticker-from-japans-softbank/
No, it’s not that because you can put those stickers anywhere – you could apply them to your shoe if you wanted. This is something that runs on the iPhone itself, or rather it runs on a secure element within the phone. The logs I’ve seen are from testing applets that are loaded into the SE, usually by another app on the phone itself (in Android’s case, Google Wallet).
NFC: The best thing to happen to theives and scammers since the invention of the lock pick.
When it’s used for payments – yes. Not just a transaction system however.
First thing I thought when I saw Passbook was that he next iPhone would have NFC. So long as they don’t introduce some proprietary standard for it that won’t work with other NFC devices, this will be a good thing. Nice to see Apple catching up in another area.