There’s no mention of NFC in the list of hardware improvements announced for the new iPhone 5 today, and there was only a very brief mention of the Passbook mobile wallet feature which was announced in June.
There was also no mention of fingerprint biometrics, despite Apple’s recent bid to acquire fingerprint security specialist Authentec.
For short range wireless communications fans, however, there was one small consolation: the iPod Nano now comes with Bluetooth.
• Find details of all current and upcoming NFC phones in our comprehensive NFC devices list.
Next: Visit the NFCW Expo to find new suppliers and solutions
unfortunate but not surprising. I guess Apple wants to let Passbook gain traction before going all in on mobile payments. The distressing part is that NFC has many compelling applications beyond contact-free payments. This will surely slow adoption and sadly, will likely diminish innovation. Time to bet big on GOOG, I guess.