'An NFC-free iPhone is not damaging to the industry'

There has been much consternation over the iPhone 5's lack of NFC, but is it going to be Apple's loss?
When the iPhone 5 was announced earlier this week there was shock across the mobile industry as Tim Cook singularly failed to mentioned NFC.
However, Miles Quitmann, MD of NFC mobile commerce company Proxama says that Apple's decision shouldn't be the cause of concern for the wider industry.
He said: "It would have been great if Apple had included NFC; but is that really going to obstruct the march of NFC? We don't think so.
"The vast investment in NFC mobile contactless payments and services is not going to wane... this could be Apple’s loss.
"Global brands such as MasterCard, Visa, Barclaycard, Orange and Google have committed, and will continue to commit, millions of dollars on developing NFC capabilities.
"With Apple’s eschewing of NFC, the other major brands now have a real opportunity to differentiate their offering and challenge the mantle for leadership in the innovation race.
Quitmann continued: "Apple is taking a different route with mobile contactless payments at the moment and that's fine but it does mean that iPhone users will miss out on one of the other big benefits of NFC which is the ability to interact with marketing campaigns that use NFC tags embedded in posters and product packaging.
"We believe that it will be this sort of activity that will initially drive the use and demand for NFC services before payments take off as mainstream."

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