Report claims that the iPhone 5 will feature NFC capabilities.

Many smartphones available in the market, nowadays have support for Near Field Communication (NFC), but one glaring omission in the list of manufacturers of NFC-enabled smartphones is Apple. Rumours had surfaced early last year that the next iPhone would feature NFC support, but these were quickly put to rest as at that time they were unhappy about the irregular standards observed. This bit of information held true and last year’s iPhone 4S did not have this feature. Back then, however, it was expected that the 2012 edition of the iPhone would have this technology and this keeps in line with a recent report by 9to5Mac.

As per the report, the website has been in contact with a well-connected developer at MacWorld who is in the process of building an app. The app is said to include many features, but the major feature of this app that stood out was that it had NFC capabilities for use in mobile transactions. The website states that third party NFC readers for iPhone were not popular aside from the recently announced, Moneto. The developer told them that though he did not have any knowledge of hardware, Apple iOS engineers on multiple occasions had spoken with him. He says that ‘they are heavy into NFC.’ When questioned by the website on how confident he was, the developer stated, “Enough to bet the app development on.”

As per a related report by Slash Gear, it will take more than just implementing the hardware onto the next iPhone. The website gave an example of Google Wallet and its inability to take off as expected. They go on to state that Apple would need to have mobile carriers, software makers, payment service providers, retailers onboard, if they plan for it to work.

As of now, we have to just wait and see how the whole thing pans out. But knowing Apple and assuming that they do implement the Near Field Communication support on the next iPhone; they should get all the norms in place before the handset is announced. Apple has an advantage because they have a huge consumer base and due to this fact, NFC technology could go mainstream, if the brand does employ it in the smartphone.