9to5Mac have managed to extract some data from two iPhone prototype models and the information they have uncovered leads them to suspect that the next iPhone will come with a built in NFC chip. NFC has been considered a likely feature of the next iPhone since Apple announced its upcoming Passbook feature for iOS 6. Although Passbook will be available on older devices updated to iOS 6, and will not necessarily require NFC to operate, it does suggest that Apple is going down the route of producing a mobile wallet app to compete against Google Wallet and the new mobile payments feature of Windows Phone 8.
NFC had previously been rumoured for the iPhone 5 back in autumn of 2011 – but neither the iPhone 5 nor NFC made an appearance during the October launch of the iPhone 4S. NFC was not included on the iPhone 4S allegedly because Steve Jobs was not happy with the technology which he considered too experimental and untested to include as a feature. Back in 2011, very few NFC services existed and Jobs was right in stating that there was little point including the feature at that time.
Since then however, mobile payment schemes have started to spring up across the globe, with a high profile system being trialled at the London Olympics by Samsung with special edition Galaxy S3's provided to Olympic athletes. Although most consumers still have doubts about the security of mobile payments it is likely to become a standard feature of smartphones within the next 12 months.
NFC has other uses besides mobile payments. One such use is easier file transfer between devices in close proximity – a bit like a more modern version of Bluetooth. This has already been implemented as Android Beam on Android Ice Cream Sandwich, and S-Beam on the Samsung Galaxy S3. Such an NFC sharing app on the iPhone 5 is likely to be limited to sharing between iOS devices.