You'll be out and about, and realise it's a chilly day. You'll be able to say "Siri, turn my heating on so it's 20ºC when I get home" and it'll happen. This kind of Siri integration seems obvious when Apple are also planning an Echo-like device. Mark my words there'll be loads of networked Siri-controlled Apple IoT devices within a year.
RS-485 is used in lots of places! It is a common low cost "networking" method in the industrial sector. The question is where will Apple use this capability.RS-485 is used in model railways according to Wikipedia... Apple model HO scale train set confirmed.
Could be for internal use, maybe to check in to a meeting room using your Apple watch? Currently there are little touch-screen displays to "log in" to conference rooms internally at Apple. NFC also implies some kind of POS (Point of Sale) pay terminal.
NFC+RS485=POS NFC reader for small businesses to adopt ApplePay.
Lots of thermostats use RS485 control signals. I'm telling you all, it's a thermostat.
Let me guess...
This device is wired to the wall just inside your front door. Home or office.
An invited visitor to your house/office taps their iPhone on it as they enter. They are then magically given permission to control your home automation devices from their phone. Perfect for friends, relatives, babysitters, pet-sitters, kid's friends, workmen, nannies, etc.
No more of this messing-around where you, the homeowner, have to act like a sysadmin and manually enter everybody's email address to grant them "permission" and all that nonsense. No, just a simple rule that if they're physically inside your house they can turn the light on. Just like a normal house!
And when they leave bluetooth range (i.e., they leave for the day) they automatically lose access until the next time you let them in and they tap their phone on this NFC gadget thing.
I'm thinking it's an Apple Pay device to compete with Square.
I hope it is a POS device to rapidly expand NFC usage to millions of small retailers.
The RS-485 reference makes sense for existing legacy register systems.
Rocketman
You may have something there.
It would promote their Apple Pay very well.