If only smart people could make the important decisions. "[W]hile avid smartphone enthusiasts are well aware of NFC, average smartphone users are either wary or unaware of the digital wallet concept," Nace writes.

Nace has mastered use of the passive tense to make rumors and speculation seem unimpeachable. "With the advent of Google Wallet, it was assumed that Apple would answer in turn with its own proprietary digital wallet," he writes. And why not, indeed?

Yet.

"Yet, by the end of the WWDC [Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June], the unveiling of iOS 5 and iCloud seemed to have pushed away the strong call from iPhone users for NFC."

A strong call from iPhone users. Yes. We can. Hope and Change. The Hallelujah NFC Chorus sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. To which Apple, incomprehensibly, turned a deaf ear.