Apple and Microsoft to Add NFC Support (E-Wallet Technology) to Phones in 2012
I go to Starbucks pretty often, I'm a big fan of their iPhone app that allows me to pay for my coffee by having the barista scan a code on my screen. The process is quick and easy and I have fun earning stars …
Context & Ripple Effects
Starbucks already proved phone-at-the-register payments can work without new hardware: its barcode-scanning iPhone app, extended in June 2011 by an Android version that carried the same scan-to-pay flow into Safeway stores, lets baristas scan a code straight off the screen. The report that Apple and Microsoft both plan NFC e-wallet support in 2012 moves that use case from app-level workaround to OS-level plumbing.
The timing matters for Microsoft especially: with Windows Phone marking its first year at roughly 40,000 Marketplace apps, a built-in NFC wallet offers a hardware-level differentiator against iOS and Android that does not depend on closing the app-count gap.
First-order effects
- Starbucks and other early mobile-payment adopters face a fork: their barcode apps run on any phone with a screen, while an NFC wallet baked into 2012 iPhones and Windows Phones would route the same transaction through the platform owner instead.
- For Microsoft, NFC support turns the wallet into a flagship Windows Phone feature to pitch against iOS and Android on hardware capability rather than catalog size.
Second-order effects
- Retailers that assumed barcode apps made NFC terminals unnecessary face retrofit pressure if Apple's install base shifts the default interaction from scanned code to tap-to-pay.
- Whoever controls the phone's secure element — Apple or Microsoft via the OS, versus banks and carriers pushing their own wallet apps — gains leverage over transaction routing and customer data at the point of sale.
Third-order effects
- If the 2012 plans hold, in-store payment migrates from merchant-specific apps into the operating system itself, making the platform owners the permission layer through which every retail transaction passes.
The trend: Mobile payment at the register is shifting from merchant-built barcode apps toward OS-level NFC wallets controlled by the phone platforms themselves.