Sticking with the tradition of
disappointing the masses with the new iPhone
, Apple (NASDAQ:
AAPL
) has reportedly skipped the option of adhering to modern mobile
payment standards, according to
Reuters
.
NFC (Near Field Communication technology) is the chip that has
been left out of the new iPhone's setup. eBay's (NASDAQ:
EBAY
) Chief Executive Officer John Donahoe has jokingly referred to NFC
as standing for "Not For Commerce", and does not support the
technology (along with many retailers and business owners that
refuse to pay to upgrade their systems to support the mobile
app).
In response to the decision to not include NFC, Apple is
developing an application called Passbook, which will serve as a
loyalty program for consumers that hold the new iPhone, much like
the digital wallet programs already developed by eBay, PayPal, Visa
(NYSE:
V
) and Google (NASDAQ:
GOOG
). All of these programs aim to combine bank accounts, rewards
programs and credit/debit cards together in both the online and
physical storefront realm.
NFC supporters did hope that Apple would include the chip in the
new product, but the digital wallet war is a battle that will not
be easily won, and those that hoped for the option will likely feel
let down.
Despite the NFC absence, Piper Jaffray notes that consumer
sentiment on the new iPhone has increased exponentially compared to
the iPhone 4S, and analysis of blog posts and Twitter activity is
up an estimated 100 percent and 460 percent year-over-year,
respectively.
In a Friday report, Piper Jaffray wrote, "we believe that 73% of
tweets about the iPhone 5 during launch day were positive compared
to 51% for the iPhone 4S launch. We believe this is to be expected
given the phone is redesigned while the iPhone 4S was not. More
importantly the positive reception of the phone gives us greater
confidence that Apple can not only meet our 6-10 million iPhone 5
unit estimate for the rest of September, but also hit our 49
million unit estimate for the December quarter, which assumes 32%
y/y growth."
Catalysts for this decision by Apple? If Passbook proves
successful, then the iPhone shouldn't face any failures in the
regard, despite the fact that NFC is supported by Isis, Verizon
(NYSE:
VZ
), AT&T (NYSE:
T
), T-Mobile, American Express (NYSE:
AXP
), JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:
JPM
) and Capital One Financial (NYSE:
COF
). On the other hand, since mobile makers have shown reluctance to
engineer the NFC chip placement in their products due some
merchants being unable to accept the technology, NFC may have a
rough road ahead of it as well, possibly resulting in
obsolescence.
(c) 2012 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice.
All rights reserved.