Edible Apple

Over the past few months we’ve seen a number of reports stating that Apple was working on an iPhone with NFC capabilities that would allow users to pay for goods and services simply by waving their device over a payment pad. Not only has Apple ramped up its hiring of RFID experts over the past few years, but credible reports also indicated that working prototypes were already floating around Apple’s Cupertino campus.

With Google already having an NFC enabled smartphone in the wild in the form of the Nexus S, it was widely believed that the iPhone 5, scheduled for release later this Summer, would also support NFC technology.

Apple, though, will not include NFC chips inside its next-generation iPhone 5 according to a recent report from The Independant.

Sources at several of the largest mobile operators in the UK revealed Apple had disclosed in meetings that it would not be including Near Field Communication (NFC) technology – which enables payment for products with a wave of your phone on a reader – in the latest version of the iPhone, be it the iPhone 4GS or the iPhone 5.

One source close to the discussions said: “The new iPhone will not have NFC, Apple told the operators it was concerned by the lack of a clear standard across the industry.” Yet Apple is understood to be working on its own NFC proposition, which would link payments through iTunes. It hopes to introduce the technology in a handset likely to be released next year.