While most have assumed the iPhone 5 will include NFC technology for turning your iPhone into an eWallet, Japanese carrier Softbank has announced they’ll be releasing their own NFC payment system for the iPhone 4 ahead of Apple in the form of a sticker you can apply to Apple’s flagship smartphone. From Engadget: [...]Softbank brings NFC payment technology to iPhone 4 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
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While most have assumed the iPhone 5 will include NFC technology for turning your iPhone into an eWallet, Japanese carrier Softbank has announced they’ll be releasing their own NFC payment system for the iPhone 4 ahead of Apple in the form of a sticker you can apply to Apple’s flagship smartphone. From Engadget:
Softbank has responded to complaints about the iPhone 4’s NFC deficit by introducing a new “seal” for the back of Apple’s latest and greatest.
The seal is applied to the back of the iPhone 4 covering all but the camera and will be able to communicate with the FeliCa payment system used in Japan. Apparently the sticker won’t interfere with cases like Apple’s own Bumper case, but based on the picture above I really can’t see this system working with every case out there.
Also noted by Engadget is that the sticker doesn’t actually communicate with the iPhone 4 itself, but acts as a separate system that simply attaches itself to the device. So until Apple decides to integrate this directly it doesn’t look like true NFC has hit the iPhone (yet). Softbank’s NFC seal will be going for ¥2,980 ($36) in February.
This got me wondering — if this “sticker” implementation of NFC were released anywhere else, would iPhone users actually use it or would you prefer waiting until Apple officially rolls NFC into the next iPhone? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Softbank brings NFC payment technology to iPhone 4 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
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