We know now, after iPad 2 announcements last week, that the next iPad will not have NFC embedded, but there is still speculation that the next iPhone will (see Computerworld's article, ). This prospect is truly disruptive for consumer payments as Computerworld's article, describes, by enabling payments for just about anything through the iTunes service. Remember Apple iTunes already providing services to 160 million users, and this could take a bite out of some of the current payments services' business.

Turning on NFC payments requires much more than just adding NFC "wallet" capability to a phone. Merchants need to be able to read the NFC chip, and while vendors including VeriFone and are committed to adding NFC capabilities to payment terminals, even if all payment terminals sold going forward have NFC capabilities, they will not necessarily appear at your local merchant for some time. A coordinated effort is necessary or simply a lot of patience will be required before wide-scale adoption is achieved in the U.S. The technology is much more widely deployed in Japan and Korea and in several European cities.

I frequently read that consumers are not enamored by NFC capabilities because they don't see a tangible advantage to using these capabilities. I would argue that consumers will adopt whatever technology they are provided that makes the transaction process more efficient and secure. I am not aware of too many instances where consumers were actually given the option. I know one of my own credit card providers issued a card to me with NFC built-in, but then replaced it 90 days later with one that did not have NFC. They never asked me if I wanted to use MasterCard's PayPass or any other mechanism, for that matter.

During that period of time when I had the capability, only one retailer that I frequented had a terminal that could read the card. And never once did anyone in that store ask me if I would prefer to use the MasterCard PayPass option, nor was there any signage informing me about how to use it. Further when I, the tech savvy consumer, asked cashiers if a lot of people took advantage of that capability, they generally had not noticed nor did they even understand the difference. So I ask you, does this sound like a good pilot to you, something to base business decisions on, or does it sound a little bit like the low commitment to succeeding big auto displayed when they tested the viability of electric cars in the mid-1990s?