Bloomberg is reporting Apple will be installing near field communication (NFC) chips in the next versions of the iPhone and iPad. This could potentially be huge and finally bring NFC payment systems, without need for a extra accessories (Square) or use of barcodes (Starbucks), to the masses.
Just by waving their NFC enabled device in front of a receiver, users would be able to pay for purchases, much like a credit card. Google is also working on NFC systems for its popular Android devices.
NFC payment systems have been around for some time, at least in theory, but has suffered from a catch-22. Processors, like Visa and Mastercard, refused to implement the backend infrastructure necessary until there was enough demand from consumers. On the opposite side, consumers won't use the systems until they are easily accessible.
If Apple, and Google to an extent, succeeds this will put millions of NFC devices in people's hands, hopefully creating a tipping point for processors to institute the backend processing.
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