It seems that you can't go too far in banking and finance at the moment without hearing the acronym 'NFC' thrown around very liberally.
NFC, or Near Field Communication, is a standard that allows smartphones and other devices to share information via radio when in close proximity of each other. It is often touted as the future of contact-less payments - i.e. you wave your phone over a reader, and it is the same as inserting or swiping your credit card.
However, try as they might, it seems that Visa and Mastercard and others are struggling to get NFC to really take hold - at least, this is the case here in New Zealand. Various theories are proffered as to why: it's a solution looking for a problem; the technology isn't mature enough; people still like the physical connection with paying. Any and all could be contributing to the current state.
But one of the big ones (and I get that there is a 'chicken and egg' situation here) is the lack of device support for NFC from some of the big players. A certain fruit company from Cupertino is a very notable example. While some of the many predictions of iPhone 5 features include NFC, none of the iDevices currently on the market have NFC capability built in.
Or do they?
Nike has recently released some pretty cool basketball (and other, lesser sports) shoes called Nike+ Hyperdunks . Lame name aside, the shoes connect with your iPhone to track your moves as you play. This is part of the whole 'gamification of real life' mini-trend that was really started by Foursquare in my opinion, and which is starting to get some real traction.
What has this got to do with NFC? The shoes connect to thecurrent generation of iPhones using Bluetooth 4.0. You remember Bluetooth? That other low-power, close proximity, wireless communication technology that struggled for years to gain any kind of foothold or critical mass? But now is in cars, speakers, and seemingly everything else? Well, the latest 4.0 version includes a feature called "Bluetooth low energy" (or BLE). This allows for devices to connect and communicate without draining the battery (unlike traditional Bluetooth pairings) and is a potential methodology for supporting contact-less communications.
In other words, through partnerships like the one with Nike, Apple may have already 'announced' their NFC play, and it might be just a matter of time before they enable a contact-less payment offering...using existing hardware already strongly represented in the market.
Or, it could just be a way of seeing how high you can jump. Time will tell.