But several mobile payment experts said Apple probably made a good choice for now, given the slow rollout of NFC, especially in the U.S.

Only 2% of merchants globally are equipped with NFC-reader terminals, not nearly enough to merit Apple's attention, said Rick Oglesby, an analyst at Aite Group. "Apple would need something really global to make it work," he said.

Apple's critics included a UK-based communications marketing company called Proxama. "NFC is going to progress at a pace without Apple," said Miles Quitmann, managing director of Proxama, in a statement. "This could be Apple's loss."

Quitmann said many credit card companies and smartphone vendors have committed to NFC, spending millions of dollars on developing the technology. Proxama is working with Device Fidelity on an NFC battery sleeve that will allow an iPhone 5 to interact with NFC marketing tags embedded in posters and product packaging.

What Apple decided to do instead of NFC is promote its Passbook mobile payment software, which runs on the new iPhone's iOS 6 mobile operating system.