iPhone 5 Front Assembly Spotted With NFC Chip

[Maura]

AppleInsider reports today on a story on Apple.pro which features photos of a fully assembled iPhone 5, complete with what looks like a Near Field Communication (NFC) chip next to the front-facing camera. Also reporting on the story, MacOtakara says that the mysterious chip has similar dimension to other NFC chips such as NXP’s 5x5 millimeter chip. And while there is no way of knowing the actual nature of the chip until iFixit actually gets to tear down the next iPhone, or, indeed, any way of knowing if the photos are genuine, AppleInsider notes that the photos first came to light on the same Photobucket account that has also posted pictures of what were claimed to be the next iPhone’s front piece, and which are considered by those in the know to be genuine parts from the next iPhone. NFC communication enables the user to pay for items purely by waving their device or credit card in close proximity to the chip, so in theory, if you had an iPhone with an in-built NFC chip, you would be able to pay by waving your iPhone in front of a receiving NFC chip.

Source: Rumor: NFC chip spotted in photos of purported next-gen iPhone front assembly

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[ipadoriginal]

Great news, NFC needed to be put on the iPhone to guarantee its widespread use.