9. Near Field Communication (NFC)
Can't really blame Apple for not introducing NFC in the iPhone 4S. The lack of clear standards across the industry (a common reason given by Apple for both 4G/LTE and NFC) seemed like a decent enough justification. Times have changed though. Industry projections, which are linked to revenue obtained from introduction of NFC in the new iPhone, claim that by 2015 almost 50% of the online transactions worldwide shall be NFC-enabled. Even if you don't take these figures seriously, you can't ignore the market for NFC-enabled phones waiting to be tapped. In spite of the fact that payments aren't the only reason we need NFC, many mobile manufacturers already have inventories of NFC-enabled smartphones ready to be launched. Some industry reports suggest that Apple is in talks with Qualcomm to manufacture a custom-built NFC-enabled chip. One aspect of Apple's recent patent claims an ability to pay for concert tickets using a mobile device. The most interesting news of all is the hiring of Benjamin Vigier as the Mobile Commerce Product Manager. With its huge database of iTunes account subscribers, Apple can't ignore an industry-wide foray into NFC. The end benefit to the user revolves around many factors outside the iPhone ecosystem. However, old and new iPhone users would love to be saddled up for the phase when the NFC technology becomes widely adopted. And, the introduction of
Passbook proves that NFC is almost a given in the new iPhone. They won't just let Google Wallet and Windows' Wallet hub, both supposedly equipped with NFC, get farther away in competition, can they?