Next Generation iPhone Prototypes to Have NFC Capabilities?

A hardware code dump from a next generation iPhone prototype reveals that the device has NFC capabilities, according to 9to5Mac.

We've previously been able to pull data from PreEVT iPhone 5,1 and iPhone 5,2 prototypes codenamed N41AP (5,1) and N42AP (5,2), which leads us to believe that the new iPhone will have a bigger 1136×640 display. We also detailed a lot of the hardware here but forgot one very important little bit of information. Further investigation into this hardware code dump leads us to believe that these iPhones also have Near Field Communication (NFC) controllers directly connected to the power management unit (PMU).

Interestingly, Jim Peters, CTO at SITA, recently told delegates at this year's Air Transport IT Summit that they need to be prepared for Apple to add NFC capabilities to its next iPhone.


"Opinion is that Apple is going to incorporate NFC into Passbook. Apple just thinks about how they can make it really easy for the user, and then they figure out how to monetise it. They don't think about how to monetise it and then tell the user what they can have. It doesn't work like that," said Peters. "There aren't any transactions in it yet, but I think that's how Apple is going to sneak up on the industry. They are going to get people used to using it and then all of a sudden they will allow credit cards to be used in there, on the next iPhone, which will include NFC."

"There is a lot of debate that NFC will never take off because of all the arguments. But you need to get ready, this is coming. This is going to happen. By the end of the year the majority of smartphones that you go and buy will have NFC on them. If in October the next iPhone comes out and it has NFC on it, it's game over."

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