[tabi] No NFC in Apple's new I-phone 5
- From: "Chip Orange" <Corange@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2012 17:59:35 -0400
I have to say I'm really disappointed in Apple over this:
Here is an article from Computerworld about it:
iPhone 5: Why no NFC?
Slow adoption of NFC in U.S. means Apple was wise to wait, some experts
say
By Matt Hamblen <http://www.computerworld.com/s/author/22/Matt+Hamblen>
September 13, 2012 03:19 PM ET
30 Comments
<http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9231257/iPhone_5_Why_no_NFC_#dis
qus_thread>
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Computerworld - Apple didn't include near field communication technology
in the iPhone 5, a decision that one NFC backer said the company might
come to regret.
But several mobile payment experts said Apple probably made a good
choice for now, given the slow rollout of NFC, especially in the U.S.
Only 2% of merchants globally are equipped with NFC reader terminals;
that's not nearly enough to merit Apple's attention, said Rick Oglesby,
an analyst at Aite Group. "Apple would need something really global to
make it work," he said.
Apple's critics included a U.K.-based communications marketing company
called Proxama. "NFC is going to progress at a pace without Apple," said
Miles Quitmann, managing director of Proxama, in a statement. "This
could be Apple's loss."
Quitmann said many credit card companies and smartphone vendors have
committed to NFC, spending millions of dollars on developing the
technology. Proxama is working with Device Fidelity on an NFC battery
sleeve that will allow an iPhone 5 to interact with NFC marketing tags
embedded in posters and product packaging.
Instead of adding NFC to the iPhone, Apple decided to promote its
Passbook mobile payment software, which runs on the new iPhone's iOS 6
mobile operating system.
Passbook relies on transmitting payment data via bar codes on the iPhone
5's 4-in. display, according to a video of Apple's iPhone launch
<http://www.apple.com/apple-events/september-2012/> (this information
comes at around the 45-minute mark of the video).
"Passbook is the best way to collect all your passes in one place," said
Scott Forstall, Apple's senior vice president of iOS software. He showed
how an airline boarding pass, a Starbucks card, a football ticket and
other forms of money-backed "passes" can be presented in bar code format
to make a transaction.
Starbucks has been successfully using a similar bar-code scanning
concept
<http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9217650/Mobile_payments_Who_need
s_NFC_anyway_> with its Starbucks card for more than a year, since it
already had the optical bar-code scanners installed at pay stations in
its stores. Starbucks officials said they wanted to get a mobile
payments system up and running without having to wait for NFC chips to
be widely deployed in smartphones
<http://www.computerworld.com/s/topic/75/Smartphones> .
NFC payment systems require special software or special payment
terminals for communicating with NFC chips in smartphones, and some
merchants have balked at adopting those technologies.
Explaining why the iPhone
<http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9108338/Continuing_coverage_Appl
e_s_iPhone> 5 does not include NFC, Apple
<http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9137163/Apple_Update> senior
vice president Phil Schiller told AllThingsD
<http://allthingsd.com/20120912/interview-phil-schiller-on-why-the-iphon
e-5-has-a-new-connector-but-not-nfc-or-wireless-charging/> that
"Passbook does the kinds of things customers need today."
Google <http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9136345/Google_Update>
Wallet, a mobile payment system that was launched a year ago, relies on
NFC and can be used in several Android
<http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9178688/Android_news_reviews_mor
e> phones. Some Android phones, such as the Galaxy S III, only use the
NFC chip to make quick data transfers between phones.
Isis, a consortium made up of wireless carriers AT&T, Verizon Wireless
and T-Mobile USA, is planning to launch a mobile payment system based on
NFC in Salt Lake City and Austin later this year. Isis defends NFC as
the most scalable and secure of mobile payment approaches.
In addition to Oglesby, other analysts said Apple made the right choice
not to include NFC in the iPhone 5, with one noting that the hardware
would have taken up internal space when Apple was trying to make its
thinnest and lightest iPhone to date.
"In a move to increase functionality in the device, clearly LTE was the
first priority and more important than NFC right now," said Jack Gold,
an analyst at J.Gold Associates. "NFC does take up space and resources
in the phone, so they would have had to perhaps make the device somewhat
thicker or have had less space for battery. Even though NFC is only a
chip, it also requires an antenna that could interfere with others in a
highly compact device."
Gold said there's no compelling reason for Apple to provide NFC at this
time. "NFC has taken off very slowly and will likely take at least a
couple more years to catch on," he added.
Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at Gartner, added that "consumers are not
jumping up and down to get NFC right now." Noting that many Americans
still write checks -- a payment method that predates credit cards -- she
said, "You wonder how ready consumers are for mobile payments."
"There's no real pressure right now for delivering NFC," Milanesi added.
"The ecosystem is far from ready from a payment perspective. This
doesn't mean Apple is not interested in NFC. They will do it when they
can take advantage of it and deliver a differentiated solution to
users."
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