The evidence continues to mount that the iPhone 5 will contain a Near-Field Communication chip, with Bloomberg now agreeing that the next iPhone will be NFC capable.
NFC’s most commonly used in contactless payment systems like Visa’s payWave. The idea is that you simply wave your NFC-capable device in front of a reader to have money automatically deducted from your account. An NFC chip in your iPhone could effectively make it a credit card, and you could use it for everything from paying for a Frappucino to getting on the subway.
Contactless payment isn’t the only use for NFC technology, though. In fact, back in November, CoM’s own sources said that Apple was working on a future iPhone that would use NFC to allow you to carry all of your Mac’s data, apps and settings around with you.
My guess is that if the iPhone 5 does embrace NFC tech, Apple’s going to make sure that it does things with the technology that no one has ever thought about. Paying a bill with a wave of your iPhone is nice, but pretty soon, all cell phones will be capable of doing that. Apple’s going to use NFC for a lot more than just that.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
