New hints of NFC Financial Transactions with iPhone 5?

The German telecom company T-Mobile has a few powerpoint presentations floating around with shots of an iPhone with a big VISA logo showing on the screen. It seems that they are confidently touting the fact that they, at least, are sure that we can expect NFC (Near Field Communications) technology for day to day financial transactions as part of Apple’s next iPhone 5 – and their packages.

They even go so far as to say this..

Deutsche Telekom announced that it expects NFC phones in 2011 from Apple, Samsung[Nexus S?] in Q2, and RIM & LG in Q3. The company expects mobile payments replacing cash to be the most popular use for NFC technology, followed by mobile ticketing for services such as public transportation.

It certainly also seems that VISA are serious about getting into NFC payments as soon as possible. We’ve reported on that in the past. VISA have been experimenting with additions for the iPhone (and other smart-phones) which allow it to take payments via NFC today. They recently ran training and some PR on this in Europe.

It is worth remembering that T-Mobile’s slides could simply be explained as them making an educated guess – like the rest of us. Secure in the knowledge that NFC dongles are on their way in any case.

So one way or the other, even if Apple do the very unexpected and skip NFC this year, there will still be a lot of this in our immediate future.

Looking forward to a “Digital Wallet”? Have your say in the comments…

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