Deutsche Telekom Expecting NFC-Enabled iPhone This Year

[MacRumors]

With rumors suggesting that Apple may add near field communication (NFC) capabilities to the fifth-generation iPhone to enable mobile payments, observers have been looking for additional signs of the such an addition.

According to Phone Scoop, Deutsche Telekom today gave a presentation at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona outlining its adoption of NFC technology for mobile payments, and during the course of the presentation noted that it expects an NFC-enabled device from Apple to debut sometime this year.

Deutsche Telekom announced that it expects NFC phones in 2011 from Apple, Samsung 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.

Engadget clarified with the report's author that the mention of Apple was included on a slide in the presentation, although Apple was not included in a press release from Deutsche Telekom describing its mobile payments initiative among other topics associated with Mobile World Congress.

It is of course unknown whether Deutsche Telekom representatives were simply speculating based on the existing NFC-enabled iPhone rumors, or if they have additional information that may have been gleaned from testing with the new device.

Article Link: Deutsche Telekom Expecting NFC-Enabled iPhone This Year

 

[Xenc]

I think paying for small purchases through the phone would be tremendously useful. I hope all of these rumours are true.

 

[carlgo]

World Series winning Giants! Funnest team to watch in a long time. I'll buy a few tickets with this, if there is no contract required. Otherwise, on-line.

 

[cxny]

for a mere 30% you can use your iPhone to buy stuff...

 

[camelsnot]

yup.. not surprising. NFC is going to be on all the platforms anyways. That's the great thing about open source.. available for anyone to implement.

The fun part will be when someone steals your phone, unlocks it easily and starts using your CCs via NFC on your phone. Better yet, hackers break down the code and can steal your payment info remotely, or intercept it while your phone is making the transaction. I called it.

 

[spazzcat]

for a mere 30% you can use your iPhone to buy stuff...

Guessing you are talking about Apple's cut of content. This has nothing to do with Apple, all they do is put the chip in the phone, they don't getting a cut from the bank.

 

[Algaeman]

Better yet, hackers break down the code and can steal your payment info remotely, or intercept it while your phone is making the transaction. I called it.

I'm wondering this too. How easy will it be to steal CC info from these devices?

 

[kingtj]

I like new technologies, but ....

I still have my reservations about all of this. NFC may be a perfectly sound technology itself, but I'm more concerned about the "big picture" of cash going away. Cash is pretty much the last possible way to pay for something in an anonymous/untraceable manner. Government and law enforcement, obviously, would LOVE to see cash disappear, but surely, so would marketing types who'd like to be able to compile completely accurate statistics on exactly where you spend your money.

As we create convenient new "cash replacements", are we really making an equal effort to ensure they have all of the same anonymous properties of a cash transaction?

I think it's a pretty basic concept that an individual might want to (and SHOULD be able to) pay for a good or service without it leaving behind a trail recording the date, time and details of that transaction. After all, this happens naturally any time you barter for something.

 

[skate71290]

Personally don't see the need for this in the UK? Everything that this could pay for i assume must be under £10 like the Barclays implementation of this... whereas most places such as Sainsbury's, Tesco, Asda, Starbucks, Costa Coffee etc etc accepts credit cards and debit cards anyway... this NFC won't save them any money and will more than likely cost more to setup and maintain?

 

[Mad Mac Maniac]

my opinon on using NFC-enabled phones for mobile payments.

What's the point... whether you get out your credit card or your phone it still requires about the same amount of "effort." It's not like a credit card takes up a whole lot of room in your wallet. Maybe it will be "safer" because it's easier to lose a card than your phone... but I dunno. Plus we will still need to use credit cards anyways because a) it will take years before NFC is well established and b) I'm not about to hand my iPhone to the 16 year old waiter at Denny's (or where ever. I'm not picking on Denny's)

 

[DTphonehome]

It's a no-brainer. Besides payments (which would be really easy through iTunes billing), there's plenty of uses for NFC, such as person-to-person info transfer.

 

[ksgant]

Great, as I walk by the cash registers in Best Buy as sales are being rung up, I'll get home and find that I've been charged $1500 for just walking out the door!

 

[WiiDSmoker]

my opinon on using NFC-enabled phones for mobile payments.

What's the point... whether you get out your credit card or your phone it still requires about the same amount of "effort." It's not like a credit card takes up a whole lot of room in your wallet. Maybe it will be "safer" because it's easier to lose a card than your phone... but I dunno. Plus we will still need to use credit cards anyways because a) it will take years before NFC is well established and b) I'm not about to hand my iPhone to the 16 year old waiter at Denny's (or where ever. I'm not picking on Denny's)

I could so go for a Grand Slam right now

 

[MacAndMic]

I don't get it, so I can see NFC football games on my phone but no AFC? What's up with that?

Wait a second, they show the scanner with the Giant's logo at their ballpark, That's baseball! That's not football! It should be NL and AL? What the heck are they talking about!

J/K

 

[shartypants]

This will be great! I remember using this technology in Japan, for their train/subway systems. Recently Starbucks just enabled the ability to scan your iPhone when you want to make a purchase (but is a little tricky sometimes), but NFC is much better, you just have to rest your device on a pad and it takes it. By "Near" it does have to be very very close, pretty much touching so no worries about false triggering. Basically, instead of sliding your credit card, you just have to rest it on a pad.

 

[macnews]

From a consumers point of view NFC payments are just an easier way (like taking a debit/credit card out is tough) to pay for purchases. Adding a charge on top of that won't work and isn't standard and Apple WILL NOT be adding 30% on top of your bill to use your iPhone with NFC. The big question for consumers is will this be tied to your iTunes account or can you use it with ANY card you choose? That I think is the big question and key. If Apple gives you options - would you like to charge to your iTunes account, debit card or credit card in a pop up screen - then I think this will be a hit. I always have my phone with me, not so every card.

The other big question is from business point of view. Here too, I highly doubt Apple will be charging 30% to the business for the privilege of them accepting iPhone NFC. If they do that, this WILL fail. The realistic possibility is Apple will do this just like credit card companies do and charge a small percentage (1.5 - 4%) of the total transaction and possibly a small set fee per transaction ($0.40). This is how current credit, debit and NFC payments are handled. There is a lot of money to be made with these small fees and if done right could spell hundreds of millions in extra revenue for Apple.

 

[skate71290]

It's a no-brainer. Besides payments (which would be really easy through iTunes billing), there's plenty of uses for NFC, such as person-to-person info transfer.

So, this chip would infact do what, surprise, surprise, Bluetooth and that popular app Bump does?!

 

[Mad Mac Maniac]

It's a no-brainer. Besides payments (which would be really easy through iTunes billing), there's plenty of uses for NFC, such as person-to-person info transfer.

This type of stuff would interest me a lot more than payments. I'm honestly not sure what this technology is capable of (I guess I should look into it) but if I could transfer things between friends phones like contacts, photos, home videos, URL's, etc, and then transfer things between my own iDevices on the same itunes account like music, movies, apps, etc (in addition to all the previously mentioned transfers) I would totally be on board with this.

I also heard somebody talk about NFC being used to sense your location. Like walk into a room and have the lights immediately turn on. or while watching tv walk into another room and the tv immediately turns on to what you were watching. stuff like that (obviously in the future because lights, tv's etc need to be built with the capability of sensing NFC)

 

[macnews]

Great, as I walk by the cash registers in Best Buy as sales are being rung up, I'll get home and find that I've been charged $1500 for just walking out the door!

Hope you aren't serious - it doesn't work that way for payments. Just from a business point of view, they don't want to be refunding everyone a ton of money as the transaction costs would bankrupt the business not to mention the lawsuits which would ensue. Plus, it doesn't work this way right now, pretty sure they wouldn't go crazy like you are thinking.

However, what you might see are interactive ads displayed in store that are custom tailored to you based on NFC technology. Can't remember what movie showed this but that could be a reality.

 

[3282868]

Recently Starbucks just enabled the ability to scan your iPhone when you want to make a purchase (but is a little tricky sometimes)

I love the idea. I have tried to use "CardStar", a great app that holds all your store rewards cards for companies such as Duane Reade and BestBuy. The only issue is some store scanners cannot read/scan the bar code from the iPhone screen, but they can enter the numbers. Saves the effort of carrying around a dozen cards.

Question about Starbucks. I set up the account, and entered my CC info. Yet it seems you have to buy a Starbucks gift card and enter the info in order to use it. Why not charge the CC# entered into the application instead of having to add a third step, or am I missing something?

 

[skate71290]

Hope you aren't serious - it doesn't work that way for payments. Just from a business point of view, they don't want to be refunding everyone a ton of money as the transaction costs would bankrupt the business not to mention the lawsuits which would ensue. Plus, it doesn't work this way right now, pretty sure they wouldn't go crazy like you are thinking.

However, what you might see are interactive ads displayed in store that are custom tailored to you based on NFC technology. Can't remember what movie showed this but that could be a reality.

Now that does sound kind of cool, but, we will of course have millions complaining about their privacy, which is a bit annoying since that slows down this kind of technology!

 

[macnews]

This type of stuff would interest me a lot more than payments. I'm honestly not sure what this technology is capable of (I guess I should look into it) but if I could transfer things between friends phones like contacts, photos, home videos, URL's, etc, and then transfer things between my own iDevices on the same itunes account like music, movies, apps, etc (in addition to all the previously mentioned transfers) I would totally be on board with this.

I also heard somebody talk about NFC being used to sense your location. Like walk into a room and have the lights immediately turn on. or while watching tv walk into another room and the tv immediately turns on to what you were watching. stuff like that (obviously in the future because lights, tv's etc need to be built with the capability of sensing NFC)

I don't think it can be used to transfer larger information like photos, etc. Well, not that it can't but the transfer speeds are too low for it to be really useful not to mention when you have many other options like WiFi, bluetooth, etc. In the future, possibly.

As to the other part about sensing location - yes, that is one area envisioned with NFC. It doesn't rely on GPS (hence no worries about satellite signal strength or being off by 3-6 feet) so can work better in knowing who really is close and transmit quick small bursts of info to custom options for you be it advertising (what I think we are most likely to see) or home sensors.

 

[3282868]

Recently Starbucks just enabled the ability to scan your iPhone when you want to make a purchase (but is a little tricky sometimes)

I love the idea. I have tried to use "CardStar", a great app that holds all your store rewards cards for companies such as Duane Reade and BestBuy. The only issue is some store scanners cannot read/scan the bar code from the iPhone screen, but they can enter the numbers. Saves the effort of carrying around a dozen cards. NFC would be a better implementation.

Question about Starbucks. I set up the account, and entered my CC info. Yet it seems you have to buy a Starbucks gift card and enter the info in order to use it. Why not charge the CC# entered into the application instead of having to add a third step, or am I missing something?

Hope you aren't serious - it doesn't work that way for payments.

Do you need to confirm the payment on your iPhone? What is the radius of NFC?

However, what you might see are interactive ads displayed in store that are custom tailored to you based on NFC technology. Can't remember what movie showed this but that could be a reality.

"Minority Report"

 

[Full of Win]

Are these passive like RFID tags?

 

[nep61]

my opinon on using NFC-enabled phones for mobile payments.

What's the point... whether you get out your credit card or your phone it still requires about the same amount of "effort." It's not like a credit card takes up a whole lot of room in your wallet. Maybe it will be "safer" because it's easier to lose a card than your phone... but I dunno. Plus we will still need to use credit cards anyways because a) it will take years before NFC is well established and b) I'm not about to hand my iPhone to the 16 year old waiter at Denny's (or where ever. I'm not picking on Denny's)

It means MORE sales !! You see people with their phones in their hands all day long... there isn't anyone in any major city or suburb who doesn't have a phone of some type in their hands walking around town... Have you ever seen anyone walking down the street holding a credit card in their hands for any length of time??

So, the point is -- Merchants will benefit greatly... Tons more sales.
Consumers who can't seem to put their phones away for a minute will be buying stuff left and right. Yes, it is Convenient... Anyway, if you give people access to their money, they will spend it. --Just my 2 cents.