RRW have been trading on a rumour that Apple’s new iPhone is going to have NFC functionality in the coming Spring. About bloody time if you ask me. NFC (Near-Field Communication) will technically allow you to use your phone as not only an Oyster card, a passport or a debit card but will also allow you to read RFID chips so you can see how much is on your Oyster card, check the microchip of a lost pet against the Pet ID database or even take payment from other people. There’s a wealth of possibilities. Nokia already has devices on the market with NFC built in but has never managed to make it appeal to the public.
Apple being Apple, there’s no doubt that if they were indeed to implement NFC (clearly they’d call it something completely different) they would have some business model built around it in order to maximise profit from the new feature. And banking, micropayment and payments in general could do with a real shake up at the moment.
It might sound ridiculous, it might sound scary or far fetched, but I don’t see why not. If you were to tell me 10 years ago that Apple were going to be the number one music retailer in the US, I’d have laughed in your face and insulted your intelligence. Probably.
