There were strong rumors and predictions that iPhone 5 would not come with the NFC (near field communication) feature despite both rival handsets, Samsung Galaxy S3 and Nokia Lumia 920, incorporating the technology. Thereby, several smartphone tech junkies and analysts were left disappointed when Apple announced the latest iPhone earlier this week as there was no mention of NFC support. And it came as no shock since Apple’s own mobile payment system (Passbook) was based on the iPhone 5’s expected metal back and having a huge ground plane (the uni-body metal back case) block your NFC antenna will seriously degrade performance.

Metal Casing Seems to be the Reason

Will Strauss, an analyst at Forward Concepts, a research company that works on digital signal processing and chips agreed with the reasoning by stating, “NFC employs lower-frequency operation than cellular, requiring a longer antenna,” Mr. Strauss said. “That antenna is often wrapped around the battery in some cell-phones, but a metal back shields any radio waves from reaching a nearby data terminal. Only plastic, Kevlar or similar backings will allow the radio connection for mobile payments. Clearly, Apple chose beauty over functionality with its aluminium back.”

NFC Not Ready For Market, Thinks Apple

It seems that Apple believes that NFC is not yet ready for the market as most users currently cannot use it to its fullest and it hopes that iOS 6.0’s Passbook feature will make up for the lack of NFC. iPhone 5 depends on barcode optical scanning of digital tickets, boarding passes and cash cards rather than NFC technology. Apple’s Paul Schiller revealed to AllThingsD that, “Passbook does the kinds of things customers need today,” and it does so without depending on any additional hardware and merchant payment systems. Passbook, without doubt, is a valuable feature as it stores all sorts of things, such as loyalty and gift cards, boarding passes and etc. but one feels that NFC would only have perfected it.

With iPhone 5 and iOS 6.0 not yet in the grasp of users and analysts, only time will tell if their sales will be sabotaged by NFC’s absence or not. As of now, it seems that Apple would not be in trouble as some surveys have revealed that 68 percent of US consumers wish to buy things using cash and credit cards rather than mobile wallets.