So Apple's big iPhone 5 event came and went with no mention made of NFC, or near-field communications. Competing devices like the Samsung Galaxy S3 and other Android phones, as well as the upcoming Nokia Lumia 920 and previous Windows Phones, have NFC, and use them (or will use them) for things like mobile transactions (like some credit cards do today), automatic check-ins and logins, beaming data between devices, and more.
Apple doesn't believe NFC is the solution to any current problem. They already handle in-store transactions with the Apple Store app, they'll be handling a wide-range of code-scannable cards with Passbook in iOS 6, and they have other technologies like low-power, fast pairing Bluetooth 4.0 that overlaps some of what NFC does anyway. So whether or not NFC hardware is actually in the iPhone 5, there's no NFC currently being used.
Apple wasn't first or fast to adopt 3G or GPS, they weren't first or fast to adopt LTE. Or third-party multitasking. Or copy and paste! It's possible Apple is waiting for NFC to get better established before they include it in an iPhone 5S or iPhone 6. It's also possible that, like BluRay, Apple considers NFC a bag of hurt and won't be going anywhere near it, ever.
So what do you think? Was Apple wrong not to include NFC in the iPhone 5? If so, is the lack of NFC in the iPhone 5 a major deal-breaker or just a minor annoyance? If you agree with Apple, do you think the iPhone 5 is just to early, or do you think Apple will never use it? Could you care less either way?
You know the drill! Vote up top and leave me a comment below saying why you voted the way you did!
