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Apple Restricting Use of NFC Antenna in iPhone 6 and 6 Plus to Apple Pay

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Apr 12, 2001
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The NFC antenna found on Apple's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will only be used with the company's "Apple Pay" mobile payment solution and will not be available to developers for use in third-party apps, reports Cult of Mac. The confirmation comes by way of an Apple spokeswoman, who also declined to comment on future plans for the technology's use in other instances.

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The move is similar to the Touch ID sensor's debut on the iPhone 5s last year, as Apple restricted its use to iTunes purchases and device unlocking. However, Apple announced at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference that developers would be able to integrate Touch ID into their iOS 8 apps. It is possible that Apple will allow NFC to be used with third-party apps at some point in the future, however it appears that the company is focused on polishing the technology for use with its own services.

Apple Pay will first launch in the United States next month as an update to iOS 8, and will be featured in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus as well as the Apple Watch when it launches next year. The service will be compatible with American Express, Mastercard and Visa credit/debit cards, with 220,000 U.S. retail stores listed as partners. Apple will also be launching an Apple Pay API for developers to integrate the service into their apps.

Article Link: Apple Restricting Use of NFC Antenna in iPhone 6 and 6 Plus to Apple Pay
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/09/16/nfc-antenna-iphone-6-apple-pay-only/
Will our kids even know what a wallet is?? Can't wait to try it for the first time!
 
Not surprising, but then again, I never expected to get rid of my wallet as I'm sure I'll visit businesses that don't support Apply Pay.
 
Then they need to hurry up and actually have Apple Pay in my country if they are not letting third parties on board. :rolleyes:
 
I think they might open it up after the Apple watch is launched. They showed the watch being used to unlock a hotel room, which would almost certainly have to be an NFC feature. Since the watch depends on the phone, I imagine that capability will be there for the phones too
 
I suppose the big question is whether Apple considers transit cards and the like to be part of the Apple Pay umbrella, or whether they really are limiting themselves to credit and debit cards. They'd be mad not to want a piece of all the Oyster Card money moving through the UK, for example; between residents and tourists it's a potential goldmine.

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terraphantm said:
I think they might open it up after the Apple watch is launched. They showed the watch being used to unlock a hotel room, which would almost certainly have to be an NFC feature. Since the watch depends on the phone, I imagine that capability will be there for the phones too
Click to expand...

That's probably not NFC; there are already iPhone passkey apps for certain hotels.
 
Disappointing. I hope they open it by iOS 9 or earlier. There are a lot of great uses for this beyond payments.
 
SethBoy said:
Then they need to hurry up and actually have Apple Pay in my country if they are not letting third parties on board. :rolleyes:
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Exactly. Id be excited if it was going to be im my country, other than that its just a part of the apple web site i gloss over at the moment.
 
sockatume said:
I suppose the big question is whether Apple considers transit cards and the like to be part of the Apple Pay umbrella, or whether they really are limiting themselves to credit and debit cards. They'd be mad not to want a piece of all the Oyster Card money moving through the UK, for example; between residents and tourists it's a potential goldmine.

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That's probably not NFC; there are already iPhone passkey apps for certain hotels.
Click to expand...

You can use contactless payment on Oyster card readers so I don't think they will be missing out.
 
They are locking it down to make sure ApplePay is successful first. They wouldn't want someone else building a better platform on their hardware before they first get their system rolled out.
 
I think this is going to piss people off at first but in the long run is what's going to make their system stick and what's going to separate them from the others, Google Wallet, and the like. It's all about exclusivity at first, to show that their way is the way that works, that it's the only way, and this isn't the first time Apple (and many other companies, for that matter) has done it. That's how you get people's attention, and that's how you get the market and industry to follow (or in Samsungs case, rip off shamelessly.) I'm not saying that it's going to seem like the greatest idea to offer those restrictions in an immediate sense, but long term, it's what's going to weed out all the half-assed efforts that have fallen by the way side and establish NFC as a legitimate tool of this day and age. Once that happens, others will be able to implement similar systems into their devices, and it will be what it already should have been on a global scale.
 
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useless hardware feature for the rest of world then ...

oh apple why do you always have to restrict every new implementation
 
ApplePay is a nice idea and will surely bring changes. But I think it will fail outside US if the merchants have to set-up an infrastructure dedicated to ApplePay. If they can accept mobile payments from Android and IOS with the same terminal, then it might work.
 
itsmemuffins said:
Just like Touch ID was opened up, so will NFC.
Click to expand...

Touch ID was something much simpler in function expanded in terms of its featureset and versatility, the only effect of which was adding deeper, greater security to the operations of the phone. Opening it's development access to third parties was a smaller risk than this could be. Opening up something like NFC to third parties is much more prone to it becoming muddled and overborne by everything NFC has been up to this point (or lack thereof) to separate itself as what NFC should be and actually set a standard.
 
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I do really want to know how it'll roll out in the uk?

We have had chip and pin for years, very quick and secure no magnetic data to steal.

We have Oyster cards for train and bus travel that auto topup from bank accounts and use NFC already so apple should be right on this. Millions of transactions a day!

Most POS terminals have NFC as cards here have had it for a few years, I wonder if apple pay can be activated or if the payment systems in the uk are already ready for it?

Would love more info on it as the phone is here so soon and there is zero info? Anyone
 
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