picture iphone-4Ready for a rumour mill let down? Although it had been widely touted, the iPhone 5 will not be packing any sort of NFC technology.
The NFC denial comes courtesy of a report from the Indy, with "sources at several of the largest mobile operators in the UK", revealing that Apple "had disclosed in meetings that it would not be including Near Field Communication (NFC) technology...in the latest version of the iPhone, be it the iPhone 4GS or the iPhone 5."
Back in January a leading business analyst had told Bloomberg that Apple was lining up Near Field Communication payment options for its next iDevices (including the iPad 2, of which it failed to materialise).
Also, in August, Apple appointed Benjamin Vigier as "product manager for mobile commerce". Vigier previously worked at NFC specialists Mobile Wallet and mFoundry as well as working within the NFC departments at Sandisk and a French telecoms company, so it all looked to be on the cards for a 2011 inclusion.
But, it looks as if we'll have to wait for the 2012 iPhone version for some wave and pay fun - with one of the Independent's sources claiming that Apple is working on its own NFC option (due to a lack of clear standards so far), linked to iTunes, that is likely to be released next year.
In the meantime, if anybody fancies lending us some cash, please do get in touch - we'd thrown away all of our credit and debit cards in anticipation.
Boo to to the rumour mill, boo - you'd got all of our hopes up and now you've dashed them away. You cruel being, you.
