New iPad 2 & iPhone 5 to Support NFC Payments After Release?

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This is definitely not the first time we hear that the next-gen iPad and/or iPhone will come with NFC payment capabilities and we’re not surprised to see more such rumors either. NFC or Near Field Communication is the kind of technology that will render your smartphone or mobile device even more important for your day-to-day activities.

NFC will let you replace your wallet with your iPhone 5 or iPad 2 and, at some point in the future, also use the same devices to open doors and power up cars, not to mention all the NFC apps that will be created. Bloomberg now reports that Apple will indeed bring NFC capabilities to its future iOS devices, and an app for that will not suffice as the iPad 2 and the iPhone 5 will require an actual NFC chip, the kind that Samsung has announced a while ago, in order to work as a wallet or door opener.

The technology, which permits a new kind of communication (up to 4-inches in distance) is said to come to the AT&T iPhone 5 and the iPad 2, and we’ll notice that, for some reason, the Verizon iPhone 5 is left out of the discussion. We can’t imagine that Apple will launch two absolutely different iPhones in June, other than CDMA and GSM support (maybe not even that as we could see a dual GSM/CDMA iPhone 5 this summer), and we can’t imagine Verizon not supporting NFC either.

But that doesn’t mean it’s just Apple stepping to the NFC plate as Google is working on the same kind of Near Field Communication support in its Android devices. 2011 will be, among other things, the year of NFC, and it will be interesting to see whether the general population will love the new kind of money management. As for me, I’ll stick with cash and credit cards for now, and I can’t wait to see what security measures will Apple, and Google, have in place for future iPad 2, iPhone 5 and Android NFC payments.