Near Field Communication, or NFC, is a short range wireless technology that allows you to use your mobile phone for mobile payments. In other words, walk into a cafe, wave your phone over a NFC-sensitive plate and you could automatically buy yourself a cup of coffee, no cash required. Or wave your handset in front of a parking meter to fill it up with a couple hours without digging through your change purse.
Last month, we reported that AT&T was looking to use NFC to allow their smartphones to work as the equivalent of debit cards, but it looks like Apple’s getting serious about NFC too… they’ve just hired Benjamin Vigier, an expert on NFC technogloy, as its new product manager for mobile commerce.
Just you wait: in a couple years time, you’ll be leaving your credit card at home and doing all of your payments with your iPhone.
[via Mac Rumors]
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.
